Smith’s last-second dunk keeps Hawks flying high

The National staff

• Last Updated: November 21. 2009 9:46PM UAE / November 21. 2009 5:46PM GMT

The Atlanta forward Josh Smith ran into foul trouble and played for less than a minute in the final period against the Houston Rockets – but he still managed to be in the right place at the right time to make the play that won the game for the Hawks with fractions of a second on the clock.

Smith’s last-gasp dunk meant the Hawks won 105-103 on Friday night to maintain their perfect home record. It came after Mike Bibby’s effort hit the rim and bounced up for Smith to seal the win with 0.7 seconds left.

“All I wanted to do was crash the boards,” Smith said. “In case he missed, I wanted to be there. I wanted him to make the shot, but I was there for the miss.”

Smith’s game-winning moment overshadowed Marvin Williams’ season-best 29 points, which helped the Hawks to their seventh consecutive win.

Elsewhere, the Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics 83-78 in a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference semi-final.

Orlando’s win was built on Vince Carter’s 26 points as well as 16 points and 10 rebounds from Rashard Lewis.

The rookie Brandon Jennings continued his fine form, scoring 29 points as the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Charlotte Bobcats 95-88.

“We deserve to be winning games right now,” Jennings said. “Michael Redd should be back on Wednesday, so that’ll give us another piece. I’m really happy he’ll be back to take the pressure off me a little bit.”

LeBron James scored a season-high 40 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers had a 105-95 win over the Indiana Pacers. “When you have a guy as talented as him, sometimes your best coaching on the offensive end of the floor is staying out of his way,” the Cleveland coach Mike Brown said.

Two Los Angeles Clippers basketball broadcasters were suspended for one game by the Fox Sports Prime Ticket cable network for on-air comments about the Iranian-born Memphis Grizzlies centre Hamed Haddadi

The play-by-play announcer Ralph Lawler and the colour analyst Michael Smith did not work the Clippers’ 106-99 win over the Denver Nuggets after pronouncing Iranian as “Eye-ranian” and suggesting that the actor Sacha Baron Cohen would play Haddadi if a film was ever made about the player.

* With agencies.