I’m at the homestead for this one and will be watching on the television as you all will.

Some thoughts and on we go.

Why the Hawks win tonight

1) Marvin Williams has gotten himself in a groove and has an exploitable matchup against Peja Stojakovic.

2) The Hawks asserted themselves as the better team a week ago. Their fourth-quarter run from the last game may linger somewhere in the Hornets’ collective memory.

3) Joe Johnson and Josh Smith played below their capabilities Friday. Bibby’s numbers weren’t outstanding, either. It’s unlikely it happens two nights in a row.

Why they won’t

1) They’re just due. It’s the second game of a back-to-back with a flight in-between. The Hawks haven’t had back-to-backs in the streak except for the start. Further, the Hornets have been home all week and come into the game on a day of rest.

2) Houston took a lot out of the Hawks Friday night. The Rockets are a relentless bunch, as the final three minutes of the game revealed.

3) …

What’s up, folks?

Sorry to jump on so late today. I have to get cranking on a couple different things – a story about the Hawks’ second team for tomorrow and then a notes column for Sunday – so not much time today.

Hope you all are doing well.

A couple links: Sekou’s blog off of last night’s game.

Ken Berger’s column for CBS Sportsline. (I met Ken after the game last night at Manuel’s with AP writer Paul Newberry and former AJC staffer and now nba.com freelancer Matt Winkeljohn. Ken bought my Sprite, so kudos to Ken.)

Matt’s story for nba.com.

A little shout-out to the Hawks in Ball Don’t Lie.

A Fox Sports column by Charley Rosen.

The view from South Florida and the Sun-Sentinel.

Lastly, you can check out Al Horford on TNT tonight at 8 p.m. for the pregame with Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson.

Looking ahead

Mike Woodson’s take on the Rockets:

The fact that hey don’t have Yao (Ming), they have become …

Another big one coming this evening with the two teams with the best record in the East taking the floor. Some gleanings to share

Worth noting:

1. This is just Miami’s third road game of the season, having played nine of their first 11 in Miami. The Heat has won both games on the road, at Indiana and Washington.

2. I’m always leery of “Player X does Y when Team Z wins” and not just because I don’t like algebra. It stands to reason when the team wins, a player’s numbers will be better. I guess causation is the issue. At any rate, one player to watch is Heat forward Michael Beasley. He’s actually scored more when they’ve lost, but been otherwise more productive when they’ve won.

In seven Heat wins: 6.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 1.3 assists 1.0 blocks.

In three Heat losses: 3.3 rebounds, 0 steals, 0.7 assists, .7 blocks.

3. Joe Johnson has had a nice two-game run distributing. It looked to me like he was trying to get other guys going early against Portland. He …

Hope you are well. As things sometimes go in my life, I was just about to post a new blog but I was messing around with it and it all disappeared. That’s how I roll. So this will probably be not quite as in-depth. Trust me, it was awesome. (I am being cynical.)

Anyway, I’ll give you some links and invite you to join in a contest.

Links

1) Sekou has started at nba.com and has his blog up.

2) nba.com’s new power rankings are up. The Hawks are in the top slot. For some of you guys who’ve been around, that must qualify as mind-boggling.

3) nba.com’s David Aldridge caught up with Billy Knight. Knight looks back on the Marvin Williams over Chris Paul draft – “Sure, if you had taken one of those guys, there could have been a whole domino effect of things that happened. But that’s not what happened.” – and gives his take on the Joe Johnson trade.

4) Interesting story in the Oregonian about Brandon Roy and Joe Johnson. (One matchup to watch, obviously. Another is Greg …

Nothing too significant from pre-game stuff that I heard. Sorry I can’t write more; I gotta crank out some stuff before tipoff.

Any predictions?

Some links: Boston Globe story on http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/11/14/atlantas_growth_spurt_was_the_biggest_factor/; Boston Herald game story.

My http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-hawks/with-huge-rebounding-night-197066.htmlfiled after the print deadline.

From the locker rooms at the TD Garden: Kevin Garnett: “They draw one on ones a lot, a lot of isolation basketball. Jamal Crawford and Joe Johnson are two of the best at that. I thought team-wise, they spread us out and they did a good job. Kudos to …

Thanks for your patience. I kind of ended up taking the long way back from the arena because I had to run an errand, and then lunch, then transcribing and now the blog.

Some Mike Woodson material: He thinks the Celtics are the best team in the league, better than they were two years ago when they won the title.

The psyche question – “The Lakers, they’re the champs until somebody takes it from them. But I think this team has got a legitimate chance to win. To come in here and try to win a game would be huge for our team. It would give us some huge confidence in terms of the season and going from there. It’s not going to be easy. … We’ve got to play a perfect game to come out of here with a win.”

My thoughts. I wouldn’t go crazy parsing “to come in here and try to win a game would be huge,” as opposed to saying, “to come in here and win a game would be huge.” That was just the way he said it. What I found interesting was that he thinks his team has to play …

Just landed in Boston, quite literally. I’m sitting in baggage claim at Logan. (It’s not that cold here, actually.)

Anyway, nothing to throw at you, other than that I’m pretty fired up for Friday night’s tilt. I don’t know exactly what importance it carries for the Hawks themselves – I gather some of you are framing it as a “stand up to the bullies” sort of game – but hopefully I’ll get a better sense of that tomorrow before the game.

Anyway, I am going to shootaround Friday morning at the Fleet Center and wanted to bring you along, so to speak. If you want to give me some questions that you’d like me to ask, I’ll try to get to the best ones and give you answers hopefully before game time in another post.

It’s something I tried while covering and blogging about Tech last year. I don’t really remember how it worked out. I’ll give you some parameters or advice. A question like “Player X, which would you so your game resembles more – a vacuum cleaner or a black hole?” …

What’s up, Sekou readers?

Hope you are all doing well. Thanks for your patience in waiting for this blog to get churning again. My name is Ken Sugiura, and I have the unenviable task of following up the master. Sekou, if you weren’t aware, took a job down the street at nba.com after five years of excellent Hawks coverage for the AJC. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but Sekou is a great guy, a great reporter and we will miss him plenty.

I’m going to be filling in on the Hawks until a full-time replacement is hired. I’ve got a good bit to learn, but I’m looking forward to it. As Sekou shared with me, it’s a good group to cover and the team, obviously, is on the way up. Hopefully it’ll be a fun ride, however long it lasts.

Anyway, I’m here for you guys, so fire any questions at me you’ve got, either on the blog or e-mail. I don’t have the wealth of NBA knowledge that Sekou does, but I’ll do my best to get you answers.

Enough blathering – …

I know you didn't see enough of rookie point guard Jeff Teague against Portland. Who wants to be their lunch money that he plays big minutes against Sacramento tonight?

SACRAMENTO – Before you finish your sentence complaining about Jeff Teague not playing against Portland and Joe Johnson playing too much, chew on one thing.

What if you are not alone? What if you’re not the only fan base whose general manager, coach, star player, sixth-man and last man on the roster drive you crazy?

What, you thought you cornered the market on being ticked off?

You are not.

Our good friend Nire passed along this message earlier today (or last night or whenever, being out west throws off my equilibrium, even after all these years of covering the league):

It’s always funny to me reading Blazers fan blogs and seeing how not alone Hawks fans are in our neuroses. Blazers fans have their own Mike Bibby (Andre Miller), JJ (Brandon Roy), Josh Smith (Travis Outlaw), Marvin Williams (Martell Webster), …