"They have a lot of guys who are not very athletic," Smith said. "But they get offensive rebounds. They killed us all night getting offensive rebounds."

Atlanta took over from there, turning up the defensive pressure and ripping off a 13-0 spurt. Brooks finally broke up the run, but Williams had a thunderous jam off a missed shot, a steal set up another dunk by Al Horford and Crawford's falling-down 3-pointer pushed the home team to a 102-92 lead with 2:07 remaining.

"The guys battled back, but we had a bad stretch in the fourth quarter and it cost us," Houston coach Rick Adelman said.

It seemed over, but the pesky Rockets battled back. Kyle Lowry exploded to the hoop, banked it in and was fouled by Williams. The free throw completed the three-point play and pulled Houston to 103-101.

Bibby missed a 3-pointer, Houston called time and got the ball in Brooks' hands. He passed off to Scola, who fumbled it away but watched it go straight to Landry, who drew Horford's sixth foul and calmly made both free throws sandwiched around a Hawks' 20-second timeout.

But Smith made sure Atlanta stayed perfect at home.

"They have the best record in the league," Houston's Trevor Ariza. "If we could have come back and gotten this one, it would have been really big."

NOTES: In the second quarter, Ariza and Johnson scrambled for a loose ball that wound up bouncing out of bounds along the sideline, not far from the Hawks bench. While the officials briefly conferred to make a call, Ariza pleaded, "I swear to God I didn't touch it." The Rockets got the ball. ... Houston shot just 42 percent but took 14 more shots than the Hawks, who made half their attempts. ... Williams also led the Hawks in rebounding with nine. ... Scola had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Rockets.