I talked to Hawks assistant Tyrone Hill about the loss, and his message was pretty simple: "We've got to cut down on the mental mistakes at the end of games," he said.

I asked him what he thought about the fact that the Hawks didn't shoot a free throw after halftime, or that the Rockets weren't whistled for a single foul in the fourth quarter (literally, I have never seen that before). He didn't allow that as an excuse (which I agree with), saying, "That happened, but we still had a lead in the 4th - so it couldn't have affected us that much."

This is the kind of game that can define a season. San Antonio is a mentally tough team, and though I'm sure they are tired after last night's 133-126 double-OT win at Dallas, they aren't going to let that affect them. The question is, how will last night's loss affect us?

I hope the Hawks win tonight, obviously. But more than anything, I hope they don't beat themselves. Atlanta could very easily be 2-0 on this road trip right now but for late-game miscues, as noted by Coach Hill. But if they are going to break the Texas curse, it's going to have to come down to execution and mental toughness. The Spurs have that in spades, and it's part of why they've won four titles in the last decade. The Hawks can learn from that.

In a related matter, I am going to retire the live-blog for the night (I know, I know, devastating news). I live-blogged every road game of last year's playoffs, and the first two games of this road trip, and the Hawks lost every single one of them. Maybe I'm the jinx, maybe I'm not, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help this team win tonight, and if that means silencing my (online) gaping maw, so be it.

I'll check in with anything worthwhile, but maybe this is just the tonic we need to get our first win in San Antonio in 9 years. Go Hawks!