The calling card of the Hawks so far has been their ability to stay in games because of their defensive prowess. Even when the offense struggled, the ability to get stops and turn the other team's mistakes into points.

At the end of practice today, Hawks coach Mike Woodson called his players out on it, but in a very calm, rational way. He mentioned the tough stretch of games the team has had lately (7 games in 11 nights), but said it doesn't get any easier (7 games in 12 nights coming up). That's just the way the schedule goes. He asked what he thought the team should do? Run more? Play guys less minutes? No matter how you slice it, he said, the effort and energy had to improve if the team wants to accomplish the goals they set out for themselves.

Marvin Williams echoed the team's need to pick up its defensive effort as they start a stretch of 4 games in five night tomorrow night in Indiana. At 6-3, the team still sits in very good shape - but I will say that the absence of Josh Smith was noticeable in the losses to the Nets, as Devin Harris was able to penetrate the defense without consequence. The Hawks face a guard in TJ Ford for Indiana with a similar skill set as Harris, and they'll need Al Horford and Solomon Jones in particular to try to provide the roadblock to the basket normally provided by J-Smoove.

A win in Indiana could be the perfect tonic for this team, as they face struggling opponents at home in Washington and Charlotte on Wednesday and Friday and could perhaps string together three more wins before they head to Cleveland to face LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

Win all those games, and they start getting dangerously close to fulfilling Hawks sideline reporter James Verrett's prediction of a 13-3 start. Verrett joined me today on the BasketBlog Weekly Podcast, and he still stands by his prediction.

Hey, if we won six straight to start the year, who's to say we can't win seven more?