Everyone who played contributed last night. Zaza Pachulia had 18 points at halftime on his way to 23 on 11-12 shooting. Marvin Williams had nearly a double-double in the first half, finishing with a full one (13 points, 11 rebounds).

And then there was Josh Smith. A short aside first.

Last night, about one minute into the game, ace Hawks PR man Jason Roose came over to my station on press row to ask if I was live-blogging the game. I wasn't, but FYI, I will be live-bloggin Wednesday night for the Miami game (plug!). I asked him why, and he said he wanted it on the record that Josh Smith was going to get his first triple-double tonight. Obviously, you will have to take me at my word on this one, but the game literally was less than 90 seconds old when he made this proclamation. Man was he close to being right.

Josh ended up a point shy of turning Roose into a modern-day Nostradamus (Smoove finished with 9 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists), but the fact that he came that close is just another testament to the all-around player Smith is on his way to becoming.

Just to recap, in the last week, Josh has now set career-bests in points (32 against Minnesota), rebounds (17 vs Philly), and assists (10 against Sacto). He is starting to remind me of myself, actually. And by that I mean, when I used to rock Tecmo NBA Basketball on my old-school Nintendo, I used to play with the Bulls and see how many different things I could do with Michael Jordan, like how many steals he could get, or points he could score, etc.

The way Josh is playing right now, it's almost like he is thinking to himself, "Let's see, what statistical category do I want to fill up tonight?" Meanwhile, the Hawks have won five of seven since losing Joe Johnson. Cause that makes sense.

By the way, the picture to the right is from a dunk Smith nearly pulled off last night that, had he finished it, would have probably been the best dunk these eyes had ever seen. Here is a link below to see for yourself. He missed it, but man if he had nailed it...wow.

Josh Childress, lest we forget his efforts, also had a great night as well, popping for a season-high 25 points. He was particularly present in the third period, hitting 6-6 from the field and earning himself the lead in Rob Blackstien's fantasy hoops column for USA Today.

With the Heat coming to town Wednesday night, it will be important for the Hawks to play team ball the way they did against the Kings (they dished out a season-high 32 assists). They can win this game without Joe. Man, who thought we would be able to say that two weeks ago.