Home sweet home. Say what you want about the Hawks uneven-at-times performance this season, but they've really done a great job of winning the games they needed the most. Tonight's win over Miami is a perfect example - the Heat came into the game trailing the Hawks by only 1.5 games for the 4th spot in the East, and Atlanta was reeling a bit from losing 4 of 5 on the West Coast to start the post All-Star break portion of the schedule. A loss tonight and I think people would start to search for the location of the panic button if not go ahead and push it. Frankly, there was a lot at stake.

The Hawks set the tone early, jumping on the Heat from the beginning and never letting up. They started the 3rd quarter (so often a trouble spot this season) on a 9-3 run to build their lead out to 10, and even as Miami rallied they never did get within a single possession.

A lot of Hawks played well tonight, but obviously the play of Al Horford was the biggest story. "Boss", as Hawks PA announcer Ryan Cameron has named him, posted the first 20/20 line since Dikembe Mutombo back in January of 2001 and showed that he is finally healthy from the knee injury that cost him 12 games in January and early February. I mentioned this in Everything You Need To Know, but if he'd gotten just one more hoop in the final 24 minutes, he'd have had a double-double in each half!

Atlanta improves to 33-25 on the season, and pushes Miami back to 2.5 games behind them in the conference standings. No time to rest though, as Cleveland comes to town on Sunday night for a nationally televised clash. If the Hawks can play with the same hustle and determination as they showed tonight, I think they'll have a very good chance of getting a weekend sweep.

There are several smaller narratives that make up the overall story of the 2008-09 season to this point. One has been the team's play at home. Another has been the surprisingly consistent offensive performances of Flip Murray off the bench. Poor free throw shooting. But the one I feel like I'm starting to notice above all others is the improvement of Marvin Williams.

ESPN's Bill Simmons talks about how it's so rare to see a player be underrated these days. Usually, a player who is underrated is so often mentioned as being so that he ceases to be underrated anymore - he either becomes "rated", or soon is overrated. In Simmons' mind, only one player in the NBA deserves to be considered underrated - Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant. However, given his offensive performances of late (including an All-Star Weekend record 46 points in the Rookie-Sophomore game), I am pretty sure his days of being overlooked in any way shape or form are over.

I'd like to nominate Marvin to take Durant's place as the leader of the underrated. No matter what Williams does on the court, it seems as if he is only known in the league for one thing - being drafted before Chris Paul and Deron Williams.

Marvin has improved his game every season so far, but he has really started to shine this year in particular. No one notices though, because he is rarely a focal point in the Hawks offense when everyone is available.

However, (warning - small sample size alert) when Joe Johnson or Mike Bibby are out of the action, all of a sudden the program changes. Marvin becomes a much larger part of the Hawks offense, and he contributes - and then some.

After last night's season-high 31 point effort against the Nuggets, Marvin is now averaging 25 ppg in the four games missed by JJ and Bibby this season - 11.1 points over his season average. Williams gets hyper-aggressive in those games, as he averages 12.5 FTA as compared to a normal mark of 4.6. And he's making them - (45-50 in the 4 games for 90%). He also grabs 7.3 rebounds, which is almost a full rebound over his season average (6.5).

Now, some of that is a function of more time on the court - normally Marvin gets 34.8 minutes a night, but in the four highlighted games he upped that to 40.5. And obviously, with his teammates missing he gets more shots up, from a normal average of about 10.1 to 14. Even with those caveats though, Marvin's production still impresses.

All of which is to say that even if the overall numbers don't necessarily suggest it, I think we are seeing this season that Marvin Williams is legitimately capable of being a star-caliber player in the NBA, and is quietly beginning to justify his draft position - regardless of who came afterwards.

Not so, as it turns out. The league took a look at the video evidence and saw what I think we all saw - that it was a foul for sure, but that no malice was intended.

And so, J-Smoove will dress and play tonight as the Hawks finish their road trip in Denver.

Sweet.

UPDATE: Well, I posted that a little too fast - Josh will not be suspended, but he will miss tonight's game at Denver as he has to attend to a personal matter back in Atlanta. But still, no suspension by the league.

In watching this trade season come and go, I'd like to take a minute to simply celebrate the current state of the franchise. Whereas several (and I mean several) teams have been falling all over themselves trying to rid themselves of terrible contracts or avoid the dreaded luxury tax, being forced to try to trade talent for economic rather than basketball reasons, the Hawks have been fortunate to not have been in that boat.

Yes, it may have taken a few years to get to this point, and we've taken our lumps for sure. But the future feels bright. We've got a young core of players with room to grow, yet at the same time we have the salary flexibility for the future that will allow us to make moves to improve without being painted into a corner.

That didn't happen tonight thankfully, as the Hawks held off a spirited home team in the Sacramento Kings to win 105-100 and move to 1-1 on their five-game West Coast swing.

The star of the night for Atlanta was Mike Bibby, as if it could be anyone else. In his return to the town where he became famous as a playoff and all-around crunch time killer, Bibby scored a team-high 29 points to lead the team to it's 13th road win, besting last year's total with 28 games left in the season.

Bibby didn't do it alone tonight, as Al Horford had his best game since coming back from a knee injury with 18 points and a season-high 18 rebounds. The rebounds were particularly nice, given the drubbing the Lakers gave the Hawks the night before in Los Angeles.

The win also snapped a nine-year losing streak in Sacramento, and kept the Kings winless against the Eastern Conference this season.

The Hawks get a day to rest up tomorrow and see if any moves get made at the deadline (3 pm ET, be sure to check the blog for any updates as the day goes on) before heading to Portland to take on the Blazers on Friday night.

Atlanta played LA pretty evenly through one quarter even as the Lakers were getting multiple second chances thanks to offensive rebounds, but when the Hawks' shots stopped falling in the 2nd it started to get ugly.

The Lakers pretty much owned the Hawks on the boards tonight, grabbing an astounding 67 rebounds, of which 28 were offensive. It's pretty hard to win on a night like that.

It was a frustrating way to start the second half, but it's only one game - but the Hawks certainly know what they need to work on before the rematch at Philips Arena on March 29th.

Let's get it back tomorrow night in Sacramento...

Looking Back: Countdown To All-Star Weekend
Home games: Phoenix, New Jersey, LA Clippers, Washington
Road games: Miami, New York, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Charlotte, Detroit

What happened: Perhaps the most puzzling stretch of the season so far. On the one hand, there were some disappointing losses. The Phoenix and Miami losses were immensely frustrating as the team seemed to lose it's way offensively, and defensive lapses cost the team potential wins in Milwaukee and New York and at home against the Clippers. On the other hand, the Hawks got two nice road wins at Minnesota and Charlotte without Joe Johnson, blitzed the Nets (finally) and the Wizards in easy home wins, and finished the stretch with a huge victory over the Pistons in Detroit that earned the team the tie-break advantage for the playoffs. If you judge the 10 on the whole it's easy to feel like the team missed a couple opportunities, but the way they closed after a tough start made it feel overall like a successful trip.

Injury report: The Hawks only played two games over this stretch with their full roster intact (though at less than 100%). Al Horford returned against the T-Wolves after missing 12 games with a knee injury, just in time for Joe Johnson to miss two games with a viral infection. Mike Bibby missed the Clippers game with a sprained foot as well. Needless to say, injuries continue to be a nagging issue for the team.

In Summary: For the second straight segment, I predicted the team to go 7-3, and they ended up at 5-5. It was a yo-yo of a stretch with the frustrating losses followed by some really terrific wins. With the team finally getting healthy at the end, hopefully the Detroit victory will springboard the team into the post-All Star part of the season.

Looking Ahead: If We Survive This, We're Golden
Home games: Miami, Cleveland
Road games: LA Lakers, Sacramento, Portland, Utah, Denver, Washington, New York, Charlotte

Expectations going in: Toughest stretch of the season without question. 8 of the 10 games on the road, including a 5-game swing out West against the Lakers (current 1 seed in the conference), Blazers (4 seed), Nuggets (3 seed), and Jazz (8 seed despite tons of injury issues). The only game that looks like a gimme is the game at Sacramento against the bottom-feeding Kings. After navigating that series of landmines, the Hawks come home to face Dwyane Wade and LeBron James back-to-back at home, then head back on the road for 3 more against the Wizards, Knicks, and Bobcats. Those games are certainly winnable, but after 7 straight battles the Hawks will really need to be at the top of their mental game for that final segment.

Predicted Record: Let's be honest here. The Hawks could play great basketball and still lose many of these games just because of the stiffness of the competition and where the games will be played. I've been predicting 7-3 records for the Hawks over the past few segments of this column, but I don't think I'll venture that far this time around. Quite honestly, this slate of games will be all about survival as far as I'm concerned. If the Hawks go 1-9, that would be devastating. If they go 4-6, I won't be thrilled, but I'll feel like they didn't give away the season. The key will be to win the games they should - at Sacramento, at Washington, and home against Miami. If they get those 3, and pick up at least one of the home game against the Cavs and road game at the Bobcats, I'll feel...well, maybe not satisfied, but I won't feel like the Hawks are collapsing. And of course, if Atlanta somehow manages to go 6-4 or better, well, then I think we can really start to contemplate the things this team can achieve come the postseason.

I'm going to say 5-5 and hope for better.

What are your predictions?

Al Horford made the most of his opportunities Friday night, scoring 10 points on 3-5 shooting and grabbing 3 rebounds in limited action in the Sophomores' 122-116 win over the Rookies in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge.

Horford's playing time was limited to 18:54, least amongst the starters, due to the fact that he continues to work his way back from the knee injury that cost him 12 games in January and February.

Big Al made the most of the limited touches he got, as his teammate Kevin Durant was the bigger story of the night as he scored an All-Star weekend record 46 points as the Sophomores won for the seventh straight year.

Congrats to Al for making the squad for the second straight year, and while a lot of the talk on Friday was about how Durant would be making an appearance on Sundays in the future, I don't think Horford will be too far behind him either.

One event down, 3 more to go - Joe Johnson and H-O-R-S-E are up next, to be broadcast live on TNT sometime during Inside the NBA Saturday afternoon between 4-6 pm ET.
 

Well, the team's continued excellence this season is paying off, as it was announced today that the March 1 home game between the Hawks and Cavaliers has been bumped to an 8:00 ET starting time so that it can be broadcast in prime time by ESPN.

Sweet!

The first half of the season is over after last night's win over the Pistons (yes, I realize we are way past the midway point, schedule wise, but the NBA generally looks at the season in terms of pre- and post-All-Star break). As I said last night, all things considered I'm pretty happy to be sitting here at 31-21 with a 3.5 game lead for the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference. We'll return to regular season discussion after the weekend, but for now let's turn out attention to the happenings out in Phoenix, where the Hawks will be as amply represented as they've ever been.

Here again is a schedule of the events of interest for Hawks fans:

The first event to pay attention to, obviously, will be Friday night's Rookie-Sophomore tilt, featuring Al Horford. Once again I think Al will have a shot at some MVP honors if his teammates can provide him with the requisite number of alley-oops and putback opportunities. However, given the way Kevin Durant has played of late, I imagine he'll be chucking it in much the same way his fellow former-Longhorn Daniel Gibson did en route to winning MVP honors for the Sophs a year ago. But I'd say count on at least a couple rim-rockers from Big Al over the course of the night.

Saturday, Joe Johnson will look to earn some well-deserved recognition when he competes in the H-O-R-S-E competition to be broadcast during the All-Star Saturday Night festivities. By the way - is JJ actually starting to gain some national pub? First he is chosen to compete in a brand new competition; then he is prominently featured in Nike's new Jumpman commercial campaign? It's kinda awesome.

In addition, Mike Bibby will get his distance on in the Three-Point Shootout. If you haven't seen our video of him discussing strategy with Mark Price yet, I highly recommend it.

Finally on Sunday, Johnson will make his third straight appearance in the NBA All-Star game. All in all, it should make for an enjoyable weekend of action for the Hawks franchise.

What are your thoughts? Predictions for the outcomes of the different games/contests?

Yes. A perfect way to hit the All-Star break, by beating the Pistons in Detroit and winning the season series in the process. Another team effort gets the job done tonight, with Joe Johnson (as usual) leading the way with 27, and Flip Murray (becoming more and more usual) coming up huge with 23. Flip's offense was particularly important tonight, as he got several of his baskets on drives to the hole that kept the Pistons defense honest.

The fourth quarter was terrific for the Hawks - every time the Pistons tried to make a run, they had an answer. Leading by 6 to start the period (76-70), Atlanta never let Detroit get closer than 2 points even as they were never able to extend their lead to more than 7. That's incredibly consistent offense in the face of a hostile crowd, especially against a team that's beaten you 7 straight times at home.

And so we hit the break at 31-21, having rebounded to win four of five to match the four of five losses they hit previously. Now the guys can take a few days to get some rest, visit their families, and prepare for what will be a rough, rough final 30 - that is of course except for JJ, Mike Bibby, and Al Horford, who head to Phoenix to compete in the festivities surrounding All-Star Weekend.

Congrats to the coaches and players for an excellent first half.

Last night's win over the Wizards was a perfect salve to help heal the wounds of this Hawks team. Strangely, in a game that saw the regular starting lineup on the floor together for only the 21st time this season, the Hawks bench put four players in double-figures and played a large role in never letting Washington make a game of it after the second quarter. The play of the bench was a huge boon for the Hawks, and the minutes played by the starters is the proof: 29:16 for Marvin Williams, 27:26 for Josh Smith, 26:17 for Mike Bibby (particularly nice with him nursing a sprained foot), only 15:17 for Al Horford, and a short (by his standards) 34:31 for Joe Johnson.

Those kinds of minutes for the starters are nice on most nights (unless it's against Orlando), but especially on the front end of a back-to-back, which brings us to tonight's game at Detroit. The Hawks have a chance to make a serious statement with a win in Mike Woodson's former stomping grounds tonight.

For as much as we tend to dissect the Hawks strengths and weaknesses, and worry about how the team hasn't lived up to the expectations they set coming out of the gate, the fact remains the team is 30-21 going into their final game before the All-Star break. With a 19-6 mark at home (outstanding) and 11-15 on the road(not the best, but an improvement), the Hawks are in great position to accomplish the goals they set, both before the season (50 wins) and as it's gone along (procuring the up-for-grabs 4-seed).

A win at Detroit tonight would send a strong message to the rest of the conference that they are serious about achieving those aims, with the added benefits of a) matching their season road-win total from a year ago and b) putting another game of distance between themselves and the 5th-place Pistons. A win tonight and Detroit is 3.5 games back of Atlanta with 30 games to play, and it gives the Hawks the all-important head-to-head tiebreak as the two squads only play three times this season.

The Pistons won't go down easy. They lost last night in Chicago, they're only 4-6 in their last ten, and they appear to be somewhat of a rudderless ship since trading Chauncey Billups to Denver for Allen Iverson, but they are still a team with a lot of pride and the confidence that making six straight Eastern Conference finals gives you.

Atlanta came out strong last night against the Wizards, but the Wizards are already on cruise control. If the Hawks can press the issue against the Pistons early on tonight, in Detroit, they can really give themselves some positive momentum going into All-Star Weekend.

Catch the team in action for the last time before the break tonight at 7:30 on SportSouth.

Johnson, OJ Mayo, and Kevin Durant will be the three competitors in the popular playground game, which will be held on an outdoor court at the NBA's All-Star Block Party.

Each player will have 24 seconds to execute their shot, and, in a break for JJ, no dunking will be allowed.

What do you think? Can he take home the crown?

I gotta say, I think he's the favorite...

Everyone in attendance seemed to be having a great time, as they got to mingle with the players, bid on memorabilia, and eat the food provided by Concentrics Restaurants.

The biggest draws of the night appeared to be ping pong, where Hawks F Marvin Williams was taking on all comers (and winning), and at Guitar Hero, where Randolph Morris was shredding it. I didn't get to see Othello Hunter take a crack at it, but word on the street is he can play a mean fake guitar video game as well.

On the memorabilia front, there were several great items up for bid in the silent auction. The most hotly coveted one looked to be a framed, autographed picture of Zaza Pachulia confronting Kevin Garnett during last year's playoffs (I know that's what I'd have bid on if I had the discretionary income available) - that photo is destined to become a fixture in the pantheon of all-time Hawks images by the way.

We'll have a much bigger photo gallery tomorrow taken by a real photographer (read: not me), but for now, enjoy these from the festivities:

What a performance tonight by Marvin Williams. I can't say enough about it. Normally a more deferential player who rarely does more than take what is given, Marv asserted himself tonight when his team needed him most, playing more aggressively than ever before in a 102-97 win at Charlotte. He was a revelation. No matter who they put on him, Marvin would put the ball on the deck and get to the hole, never letting shot-blockers like Emeka Okafor and DeSagana Diop intimidate him either.

Williams has scored more points than the season-high 29 he had tonight (his career-best is 33 last year in Seattle), but I daresay it'll be a while before any Hawks player earns their final tally the way he did tonight. Marvin was 18-20 from the charity stripe, a welcome turn for a team still struggling to convert free throws. 20 free throws! That is aggressiveness defined. Clearly the Hawks coaching staff impressed upon Marvin that this was what the team needed with Joe Johnson out with a viral infection, as Marv's previous career-high for FTAs was 14, which he set...Wednesday against the Timberwolves.

With offensive talents like JJ, Mike Bibby, and Josh Smith usually grabbing the headlines, Marvin generally gets a quiet 14-16 points most nights. And when Joe comes back (hopefully Saturday night against the Clippers), he may return to that role, who knows. But it's nice to know that when called upon, Marvin can be every bit the destructive force on offense as his more highly-touted teammates.

The team deserves a lot of credit for nabbing two straight road wins without their All-Star, and if nothing else, they certainly proved the Hawks are no longer a one-trick pony.

UPDATE: This just in from PR - the last time a Hawks player attempted 20+ free throws in a game, strangely enough, was Steve  Smith on Feb. 6, 1999 - ten years ago to the day! Smitty was 18-21 from the foul line that night. Againt it shows just how impressive Marvin's performance last night truly was...

And then there were three - the NBA announced the field today for the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout, and Hawks PG Mike Bibby, as hoped for expected, will compete for the title in his hometown of Phoenix, AZ. That now makes three Hawks players heading to All-Star Weekend, with Al Horford participating in Friday night's Rookie Challenge and Joe Johnson set to play in Sunday's All-Star game.

Bibby has certainly earned a chance to compete this year, as he is currently 4th in the NBA in made three-pointers with 114 and is hitting them at a rate of over 40% for only the second time in his career.

It's also the second time in his career Bibby has taken part in the All-Star Weekend competition, as he fell in the first round in back in 2000 despite an impressive tally of 15.

The nod for Bibby caps an impressive first half for the Hawks, as they will send three players to All-Star Weekend for only the third time in franchise history. In 1992, Dominique Wilkins and Kevin Willis were on the Eastern Conference All-Star team (Nique was injured and didn't play) and Stacey Augmon competed in the Slam-Dunk contest. In 1994, Wilkins and Mookie Blaylock played for the East, which was helmed by Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens.

Congrats again to Bibby, and now Hawks fans can look forward to having a rooting interest every single day of All-Star Weekend!

The bad news is Joe Johnson appears to be under the weather, and whatever illness is afflicting him currently could possibly keep him out of the lineup for tomorrow night and Friday night's game in Charlotte.

After practice, Horford addressed the media on his return to the court. Al's no dummy; he knows the team has missed his presence in the middle (especially defensively - I think Zaza Pachulia did a pretty solid job on the offensive end in his absence), and his return couldn't have come at a better time with Al Jefferson and Kevin Love on the opposing team tomorrow night.

Mike Woodson also spoke on the return of his starting center, and in addition offered some thoughts on the rumor of his former coach's interest (that'd be Bob Knight) in the currently available Georgia coaching gig.

Why this team can't get completely healthy all at the same time is beyond me, but lest we start playing the "woe-is-me" card, let's just be thankful each of the major injuries suffered by Hawks players this season have been of the 3-4 week variety and nothing more. With the Lakers losing Andrew Bynum for 8-12 weeks with a torn MCL, and with Orlando's Jameer Nelson out with a torn labrum, it could certainly be worse. Fortunately for the Hawks, Flip Murray has been playing his best ball of the season of late, so hopefully he'll at least be able to provide some of the scoring punch the team will undeniably lack without their captain and All-Star.

Speaking of Nelson, his injury will almost certainly keep him from competing for the East in the upcoming All-Star game, if not the rest of the season. With Devin Harris the only other true point guard on the roster (not that that really matters too much, it's an All-Star game after all), it seems likely a point guard would take his place. Could Mike Bibby be that guard? It's possible. I think Bibs needs to make people take notice of him the next couple games to raise his profile, but my guess would be that either Rajon Rondo of the East-leading Celtics or Mo Williams of the Cavaliers will have a slight edge. Still, let's keep hope alive, shall we?