The Hawks' second annual Blog Night took place last night at Philips Arena, and the Hawks were nice enough to oblige our efforts to cull the best sports bloggers from the Atlanta area by putting on quite a show.

Frankly, last night's game couldn't have gone much better on the court. The Hawks came out smoking in the first half in much the same way they did against Chicago on Sunday, continuing the kind of up-tempo style that makes them infinitely more difficult to beat. They were incredibly unselfish against the Nuggets; every single player who saw meaningful action finished the night with at least 3 assists on the way to a season-best 33 dimes.

I don't want to jump to conclusions too quickly, but as I mentioned to several of the participants last night, it seems like the guys have started to figure this whole transition game out. If they go on to finish strongly and make the playoffs, I'm going to point to the second half against Cleveland on January 9 as the point where it appeared the light bulb collectively turned on. Since then, the Hawks have been pushing the ball very successfully in non-fastbreak situations, and if not for a few missed free throws (ok, more than a few) they'd be working on a nice little four-game winning streak right now.

I suppose we'll know for sure if something is really taking place here in the next segment of the schedule, as the Hawks start a 7-of-8 stretch on the road tonight in Milwaukee.

But back to Blog Night. We had a nice array of bloggers on hand (though no one drove in from Maine this year, I'm sorry to say), and since they got to see a convincing home win over one of the better teams in the West, many had very positive things to say about the experience (which included a pre-game arena tour, seats in a suite so they could tap away on their keyboards in peace, a post-game trip to Coach Woodson's press conference, and as a cherry on top, a chance to chat with Al Horford in the Hawks locker room).

It's funny - I don't think the sports world has quite figured out what to do with bloggers yet, but in both of the years we've done this (and once with the Atlanta Thrashers), everyone who has joined in has been respectful, courteous, and appreciative of the opportunity to take a small peek behind the curtain. If anything, I thought last night's crew went out of their way to prove nothing funny was going on (several perfectly acceptable questions for Horford were prefaced with "I swear, I am not writing this down!" qualifiers).

Certainly there are valid reasons to set standards for who you allow in as a member of the press, but as blogs become more and more mainstream, it will be interesting to see what kind of access they are given. Hopefully nights like this will help show that there are many people out there with intelligent, thought-provoking things to say about their subjects of choice - or at least will help continue the LOLcats craze. Either way works for me.

Here's a little sampling from last night; feel free to read the extended entries at each respective site:

Hoopinion:
"Denver fell so far behind in no small part due to Anthony Johnson's fine defense on Allen Iverson. Iverson still had a productive game (before getting tossed) but Johnson, for the most part, forced Iverson into scoring with his jumper. For a team that has had terrible problems keeping opposing guards from breaking them down off the dribble, I think this is as significant a lesson to take from this game as yet another example of how much more successful the Hawks are in transition as opposed to their half-court offense."

Kevin Cott:
"12:00 - Sitting to my left is the Crafty Veteran, whom I'm a little disappointed in at the moment.  The other night I agreed to wear an American flag bandana throughout tonight's game if he showed up in his white suit, but he chickened out.  We could have been the Springsteen and Don Johnson of Blog Night.  It would have been glorious.

0:00 - Fantastic tomahawk dunk by Mario West to close out the first half. It's unclear whether more credit belongs to the Hawks for pushing the tempo or the Nuggets for refusing to play any semblance of perimeter defense. I guess both were indispensable. Regardless, 65-44 Hawks after two."

Crafty Veteran:
"1:20 - Mario West just entered the game for the Hawks. He is my favorite story of the Hawks season so far. To go from a walk on a Georgia Tech to an NBA player based purely on working harder then anybody else is awesome."

"2:26 - The Hawks are playing Iverson very tough tonight. Usually, he is the type of player who gives the Hawks fits because of his quickness. But, Marvin and the Josh's are doing a great job of protecting the rim."

Hawks, Dawgs, and Jesus:
"Iverson makes a normal jumper and everyone ohhh and ahhhs. People, you don't have to make him feel better about himself because he is small."

"Josh Smith lists himself as a small forward on his myspace page, which I view as an official NBA document. Are there any other small forwards that do the opening tip?"

Atlanta Sports Fan:
"I wanted to watch for was to see how Childress gets so many rebounds considering his position, height, and the amount of court-time he sees. It’s clear, pretty quickly, that he is one of those guys that you could call a technical rebounder. For instance, he knows how to play the percentages on where the ball is going to carom on a miss, so he’s always standing in the right place at the right time. In short, I’d say he has good rebounding instincts."

"Marvin Williams picks up where he left off, scoring two quick points off a foul. Williams is a much better player than he gets credit for. He’s got a great jump shot, is an above average slasher, and has a pretty good low-post game for someone his size. He’s just an all-around good player and doesn’t get noticed. The only notoriety he has so far is that he was that guy drafted before Chris Paul."

Sports Gone South:
"The Hawks are starting to show off a variety of attacks; JSmoove just hit a running one-hander, and Horford bulldogged in a give-and-go shot with an And-one. This is the kind of thing that starts happening with a team on the upswing. Yes, I know they’re catching the Nuggets on the back end of consecutive road games, but this is a sign that the potential’s there."

"If Brett Favre plays the game like a little kid, the Hawks play basketball (at their best) like a group of playground all-stars, dishing and kicking and running the other team off the floor. They need one of those old Paul Westhead offenses, where they start running at the horn and don’t stop until they leap into bed at night. Screw fundamentals; if you can run yourself into 200 shots a night, you’ll be okay."

The Vent:
"Ocho Cinco is in the building. Jermaine Dupri is in the building bundled up like he's at the North Pole. It's cold outside and all, but it's not cold in this arena."

Braves and Birds:
"Childress makes me look good with a high hoop IQ play. He catches an attempted alley-oop pass from Acie Law that carried him past the basket. Instead of doing something dumb, he calmly locates Joe Johnson in the corner for an open three, which Joe nails. Kudos to Joe for running to the spot even though Law was throwing an alley-oop on the play."

"The extent of my interaction with Josh Smith:

Me: "Good game."

Him: "Thanks."

On the basis of this interaction, I have decided that the Hawks should pay him whatever he wants this summer."

Thanks again to everyone who participated - a few of the bloggers were familiar from last season, but there were also a few new faces, which was fun. And definitely thanks to the Hawks PR staff for agreeing to continue this tradition and also for arranging the time with the players - I fully expect an upswing in the number of Horford jerseys sold after last night.

Finally, if you read this and feel like you should be involved next year, well, start yourself a little blog and let us know about it. Who knows? It could be you up there next time.