James would return, however, and J-Smoove showed no ill effects during or after the game, either.
“Yeah I’m concerned anytime [LeBron] hits the ground that hard and comes up limping. But he has a way of healing quicker than most,” Spoelstra said.
The injury left Miami temporarily without a two members of its three-headed max contract monster, but it was Ray Allen to the rescue in the second quarter with ‘Bron in the locker room and Dwyane Wade sniffling his way through the evening.
Allen finished with 17.
“Ray’s done that over the course of his 17-year career,” Spoelstra said of his new shooting guard’s performance. “He’s had to carry an offense, and he had to do that with our second unit tonight.”
“It’s one of the reasons we went after him: we were tired of watching him make those plays against us.”
Allen and James’ performances were crucial, but Chris Bosh led the Heat with 24 points just several blocks away from Georgia Tech’s campus, where he played a single season before leaving. The Yellow Jackets made the NCAA Championship the following season.
For Spoelstra and the Heat staff, game planning for a Joe Johnson-less Hawks team is a whole new animal.
“It’s different for a lot of different reasons,” Spoelstra said.
“[The Hawks have] smaller guards who are extremely quick, lightning quick. It felt like they were in the paint all night long.”
Jeff Teague is the smallest and quickest of the bunch, and the third-year point guard out of Wake Forest threw up some silly stats of his own against the Southeastern Division foes, going 7-of-8 (2-of-2 from three, 4-of-4 from the stripe) for a team-high 20 and 11 assists.
Anthony Morrow led four other Hawks in double figures with 17 points in just 14 minutes. Smith (13), Kyle Korver (11) and Al Horford (10) were the others.
Lou Williams, who led the entire NBA in fourth quarter scoring through the season’s first week, was 0-for-6 and scoreless on the evening after going for 22, 19 and 9 in his first three contests with his hometown Hawks.
Yet as Sweet Lou’s numbers slide one way, the Hawks season seems to be tilting another. New players like Morrow are getting more minutes and better shooters (also like Morrow) are getting the ball when they’re alone in a corner.
Larry Drew wants them to play fast without trying to play fast, a paradox that he believes the Hawks will crack at some point this season.
But when you drive fast, you hit speed bumps, and the Hawks ran into a LeBron-shaped mound tonight. A 2-2 record with a road win against the Thunder and a home loss to the Heat is nothing to get down about; it simply means the Hawks are close.
Close to a rotation that makes sense, and even closer to more wins.
Yet as we witnessed tonight, when it comes to being close, nobody comes close like LeBron.
Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Click here to follow him on Twitter.