Happy New Years! Hopefully everyone got out to celebrate a little bit (but not too much), and is back and ready to get 2009 going the way 2008 finished. As is customary this time of year, I know everyone wants to make New Year's resolutions to try to keep. I asked several of the Hawks bloggers to weigh in with their New Year's resolutions for the team, so definitely check those out. I'll add my two cents here:

1. Build some road momentum. The Hawks have become pretty fantastic at home, going 14-2 in the 2008 portion of the schedule. At 7-8 on the road heading into tonight's game in New Jersey, Atlanta has been...ok on the road. They have a couple really nice wins (at New Orleans, at Chicago where they'd lost 7 straight), but overall they've played far better at home than away. It's not the end of the world, everyone pretty much does that, but if the Hawks want to really separate themselves from the other contenders for the 4th spot in the East, they'll need to start picking up some more road wins in 2009. There are some winnable games in January (at NJ, at the Clippers, at Golden State, New York, and Milwaukee for example), so hopefully we'll see them grab a few more than the first couple months.

2. Defend the point. One of the main reasons New Jersey swept the Hawks back in November was the performance of Nets' PG Devin Harris, who used his quickness to get into the lane as he torched Atlanta for 63 points in two games. Other quick point guards have done very well against the Hawks also, and defending their penetration has really been the biggest achilles heel for the Hawks D. We all know Mike Bibby won't be making any All-Defensive teams anytime soon, but knowing his shortcomings on the defensive end (which he certainly makes up for offensively, thank goodness), the Hawks are going to have to figure out other ways of clogging the lane to keep the Harrises and Roses of the world from forming a lay-up line. Having a healthy Josh Smith back makes a difference to be sure, but everyone is going to have to pitch in to keep this area from being such a trouble spot. The Hawks do a lot of things well defensively, so minimizing the damage from this one trouble spot will go a long way towards helping the team achieve their 50-win goal.

What other resolutions do you have for the Hawks in 2009?