Smith
Josh is smooth in Hawks win
Although there were only seven games in the NBA Tuesday night, there was no shortage of great notes.
Take Josh Smith, for example, who scored a season-high 34 points in the Atlanta Hawks' 116-101 victory over the New Jersey Nets.
Smith shot 14-16 from the floor, and over the last four seasons, only three other players have scored at least 34 points on at least 14-16 shooting: Amar'e Stoudemire (this season), Chris Bosh (2007-08) and Kevin Martin (2007-08).
The Hawks shot 60.3 percent from the floor in the win, just the fourth team in the NBA to do so this season.
Atlanta also continues to get it done despite the absence of Joe Johnson, improving to 4-1 without their star. Both Smith and Jamal Crawford had season highs in scoring.
FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Smith became the first Hawks player with a game of that many points (34) and that high a FG pct (87.5 pct) in more than 55 years, since Hall-of-Famer Bob Pettit scored 34 points while making 12 of 13 shots (92.3 percent) on March 14, 1955.
Pettit’s performance came in a 99-84 win over the Philadelphia Warriors, in a neutral-site game played in Albany, New York. What made the game especially noteworthy is that it was the final game played by the Hawks while representing Milwaukee.
Less than 2 months later, it was announced that the team would move from Milwaukee to St. Louis for the 1955-56 season; it then moved to Atlanta in 1968.
Texas Ten-Step
Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks' 105-100 win over the Golden State Warriors gave them 10 straight wins.
It’s the eighth time dating back to the 2001-02 season that the Mavericks have had a 10-game win streak, tied with the San Antonio Spurs for the most in the NBA over that span.
That 10-game win streak was enough to move the Mavericks from fifth to second place in the Western Conference.
Miller time ends
Finally, Andre Miller was suspended for the Portland Trail Blazers’ 106-99 win over the Phoenix Suns after his hit on Blake Griffin in Portland’s last game.
That’s important because it snapped Miller’s streak of 632 consecutive games played, which was the longest active streak in the NBA.
Derek Fisher is now the NBA’s new iron man, having played in his 434th consecutive game in Tuesday night’s Los Angeles Lakers' win. The New Orleans Hornets' Jarrett Jack moves to second, with 309 straight games played.