Having said that...big game tonight at Washington. The Hawks are just a half-game behind the Wizards for second place in the division, and a win would help them start climbing the ladder in the East (as would a win next Wednesday over Indiana).

Looking at the Eastern Conference, I'm really thinking the Hawks need to finish no lower than 6th. I don't like our chances, at present, in a seven-game series against Boston or Detroit. But that aside, I think we could fare pretty well against the rest of the contenders. That's why its so important to win division and conference games - with so many teams bunched together right now, you want as many tie-breaking edges as you can get. Atlanta has played very well within the division so far, sporting a Southeast-best 5-1 mark. Their only blemish is a loss to Washington earlier this year, which makes tonight's game all that much more important. A Wizards win gives them no worse than a push on the season series, while a Hawks win ensures that they'll have the advantage when they play again at Philips on January 11.

The schedule slows down a bit for the next couple weeks over the holidays (only five games spread over the next two weeks), which benefits the Hawks about as much as any team in the league right now. Hopefully it will give Chills, T-Lue, Acie, and AJ a chance to rest their bodies. Atlanta has been very impressive beating the likes of Utah and Miami of late despite being shorthanded, but that can only last so long. We can't afford to have Joe Johnson playing 53 minutes a night - there are just too many games on the schedule.

Washington has been playing surprisingly well, but they are a beatable team. A win tonight and people are going to start paying more attention to the Hawks (seven wins in nine games tends to do that), but they are going to have to maintain the high level of play we've seen from them in the last few games.

On another note, the posting may be lighter around these parts over the next several days as I am headed on a little family vacation. But I'll make sure to weigh in if anything big goes down.

Catch the Hawks tonight at 7:00 ET on SportSouth, and let's see if we can't start putting more distance between ourselves and .500.