Game day here in Atlanta (UPDATE - oops! I mean Houston). The Hawks held shootaround at the arena this morning, going through the game plan of what they want to do tonight against the Rockets. Houston played last night in Memphis and lost to the Grizzlies, though they played without the services of Ron Artest and Brent Barry in addition to the already-injured Tracy McGrady. No word yet on whether those two will play tonight, though the early word is that at least Ron-Ron will give it a go.

Obviously it seems like it's better for the Hawks to catch the Rockets at less-than-full strength, but Zaza Pachulia said something interesting to me about it after practice was over. I was asking him about going up against Yao, and I asked him about Artest maybe being out, and he said he doesn't like playing against teams when they are hurt. His feeling was you don't accomplish as much when you beat a team without its best players - he wants to beat them when they are at their best. Noble thoughts for sure, but I am way more petty - I want anything that gives us a competitive advantage.

I spoke with Hawks assistant Larry Drew in our Breaking Down The Rockets segment about what the team needs to do tonight to beat the Rockets, and it sounds like it begins and ends with the big guy in the middle, Yao Ming. I've talked to all of our big men over the past couple days about the best ways to attack the problem that is Yao, and I think Speedy Claxton may have said it best: "Hope he misses."

It's a good line, and it's mostly true, because honestly, what do you do against a guy who is a good head taller than your starting center? Al Horford, the man who will start off with the task of trying to slow down the Great Wall (and Horford will indeed play tonight - he was in full practice mode today at shootaround), said the important thing is to just try to make him beat you from the outside.

"The best thing you can do is try to keep him from getting position in the lane," said Horford. "He is a good shooter, so even outside the lane he can hurt us, but the further away he is the better our chances are."

Pachulia added that what makes Yao so difficult is that, unlike some of the other dominant big men out there (Shaq, Dwight Howard), Yao is a terrific free throw shooter, so you can't just foul him a bunch and make him earn his points from the line.

Mike Woodson did give one strategy for beating the Rockets, which he closed shootaround with today.

"We have to beat them down the court," said Woodson. "Yao is slow, and we have to use our athleticism to get by him for easy baskets."

Woody is exactly right, of course. While Yao has a huge advantage in height on his opposition, guys like Horford, Josh Smith, Pachulia, and Solomon Jones all have a decided quickness advantage on the big guy. If they can use that effectively, especially in transition, then the Hawks will have a good chance at getting a win tonight.

I talked to Solo about tonight's game, and about how preparation on the road compares to when they have the comforts of home. For him, he said things aren't that much different for away games and home games, he pretty much just tries to make sure to get some rest in.

That's a recurring theme throughout the team, as most players will get a good nap in on game day (I am so jealous of this by the way. If I had to rank the things about the lifestyles of NBA players I am jealous of, I think it would go 1) Financial security and 2) Ability to take naps on a nearly daily basis). The king of naps of course is Joe Johnson, who in addition to having an unbelievable talent for basketball, he also has an amazing ability to sleep wherever, whenever. I think he might be cold-blooded.

Ok, time to pack up my gear and get ready to head over to the Arena. It's been nice being in one place for a few days, but we'll get back to normal (read: normal for them, abnormal for most) as we fly to San Antonio after the game for tomorrow's date with the Spurs.

Feel free to follow along tonight's game with me on the live blog - let's put an end to this losing streak and build some momentum for the rest of this trip!