The Atlanta Hawks were definitely expected to struggle on Friday night when they found out that Josh Smith would be missing in action for Game 3 against the Boston Celtics. They didn’t really feel his absence in the first half, however, thanks to Tracy McGrady turning back the hands of time once he was summoned from the bench.
The former scoring champion looked like the T-Mac of old in the first half, showing nifty pull-up jumpers, sweet spin moves and generally doing everything people remember him doing during his prime -- including a slick dunk around Mickael Pietrus -- before needing to be helped off the court with an apparent ankle injury after scoring 10 points and grabbing six rebounds in less than 17 minutes of playing time.
When he injured his foot, McGrady shot a three-pointer and came down awkwardly on Rajon Rondo’s heel as the Celtics point guard attempted to close out on the jump shot. It wasn’t a dirty play, but it wasn’t easy to watch McGrady go down clutching his leg after a solid first half, either. The always-excellent @cjzero posted video of the incident on Youtube.
The Hawks led the Celtics 40-38 at halftime, thanks largely to McGrady’s play along with solid play from Joe Johnson, but things could easily fall apart if T-Mac is unable to return in the second half due to the sprained ankle. Atlanta is already missing Smith, Al Hoford and Zaza Pachulia due to injury.