My night, generally speaking, mirrored the Hawks. I think this is what the road does to you - puts you out of your comfort zone.
It doesn't seem like much individually, but taken all together, the little things at home that make everything routine are gone when you are on the road, and things that are usually easy somehow become much harder.
For example - at home games, I keep my Hawks media credential in my car. On game day, I take it out of my car and put it with my computer so I'll have it with me when I head over to the arena for game-time. On the odd occasion I forget to do that, it's no problem - I just walk to my car and get it, and the mistake costs me maybe 15 seconds.
Tonight, in Dallas, my media credential was left for me at the front desk of our hotel. As I headed down to check out, I made a mental note to myself to make sure to remember to get it, but of course when I got there I completely forgot it. At home, it would be easy to fix this, but as I had no way to get back to the hotel to get my pass I was potentially in a tough situation. Fortuantely, Hawks PR man Arthur Triche was able to get me another one, but it just illustrates the point.
The rest of the night didn't go much better, as my computer wouldn't accept the arena's wireless connection, making it impossible for me to do my normal in-game and post-game duties.
It just goes to show you what the road can do to you, and the Hawks seemed affected by a similar curse for most of tonight's game against the Mavericks.
Now we are in Houston, and we will be here for nearly three full days before taking on the Rockets on Tuesday night. Maybe that amount of time in one place will allow the team to find a bit more of it's rhythm - they definitely seemed to be missing it tonight.
More tomorrow about Acie Law's night in his hometown...
