Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, and is happy to have turned the page on a brutal November schedule that saw the Hawks go 10-6 (about a game better than I predicted) including 6-6 without star forward Josh Smith. Now, as we hit December, we are faced with a new challenge: expectations.

With Smoove returning to the lineup on Wednesday for the Memphis game and a whole host of home games on tap, the Hawks will have a chance to prove they are the contender we think they are by putting up some impressive win totals. In the season's first month, the Hawks went 5-1 at home and 5-5 away from home, a recipe that gets the team pretty close to the 50 wins they set for themselves as a goal before the season. Extrapolate that into this month's 10 home/5 road slate, and if the Hawks can put up something like an 8-2 home mark and say 2-3 away, then you are looking at an Atlanta team that begins 2009 with an impressive 20-11 record and will be very much in contention for home court advantage in a first-round series.

I spent a couple minutes talking with Josh after practice today, and we talked about how hard it was having to sit this past month as well as what he thought about his teammates' performance without him in the lineup. Sufficed to say, he is ready to get back out there. I can only imagine what it's like to have to sit on the bench and watch your team play without you, especially when you feel like you are ready to contribute again as Smoove has the past few games. However, it will pay off in the long run for the team to have been cautious with Josh, as it's better to lose a few games here and there in the interim rather than risk more extensive long-term damage that might hurt him and the team later on.

I'm sure you feel the same, but I am very excited to have him back on the court and see what this team is capable of at full strength. In the BasketBlog Weekly Podcast I recorded today with "Hometeam" Brandon Leak, we talked about how the two home games this week against Memphis and New York will be great venues for Josh to work his way back into playing shape (he acknowledged himself that getting his wind will be the toughest task he'll face in returning). With a tremendously difficult road trip through Texas coming up next week (PLUG: I'll be heading out on that trip with the Hawks, so by all means let me know if there are things you want me to cover while I'm with the team), the Hawks will need everyone in midseason form if they want to avoid some of the pitfalls they've experienced in the past.

Finally, as the calendar leaves the season's first month, we asked some of the Hawks bloggers out there to hit us up with their thoughts on how the team has done so far. Check out what they had to say in the latest installment of the Blogger Roundtable.