The Hawks acquitted themselves fairly well on the road last week, winning games in Orlando and Phoenix before falling to Portland in Kansas City on Friday night.

Each game has seen nice performances from several different players, and Friday saw the first game action for rookie Othello Hunter, who nabbed 6 offensive rebounds in just under 17 minutes of play. Not bad for the rook - you can read about his experience getting into his first game as he continues his training camp blog for Hawks.com.

There was a nice turnout on Saturday for the open practice, and I think everyone who was there had a nice time. Still, tonight is the real deal, as the Hawks hit the hardcourt for the first time this season at Philips Arena against live competition.

We previewed the game this morning with new Hawks assistant coach Jim Todd. It's always hard to get a read on things in the preseason, but he still gave a glimpse into what we can expect the team to do tonight to try to get a W. He mentioned during the interview the status of Mike Bibby being up in the air, and the latest I'm hearing is we probably won't see him tonight as he is dealing with a strained oblique. Speedy Claxton is out as well as he continues to rehab from a hamstring pull. That being the case, I think we'll see a ton of Acie Law, Flip Murray, Mario West, and Thomas Gardner tonight just as we did against the Blazers. All reports of Law's game have been positive so far, so I am excited to see him give it a go tonight.

In other news, Lang Whitaker, famous for his Hawks column from a year ago (fine - and famous for his work at Slam Magazine and others as well) did a preview of the Hawks season for Slamonline, and had a nice little conversation with Sekou Smith as a part of it. A lot of interesting takes in there, I highly recommend reading and listening. Lang will be back this season on Hawks.com as well, so stay tuned for that.

You coming out tonight? What else are you excited to see from your first glimpse of the Hawks in uniform?