Ladle and tongs at the ready, Josh Smith was dishing out with a point guard's precision.Life has been good to Smith, the Hawks' emerging star. Wednesday, the product of McEachern High returned serve.The Hawks forward hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner for about 200 women and children from My Sister's House, an Atlanta Union Mission facility that provides emergency shelter and residential-recovery programs for women and children.

They have a seven-game winning streak to their credit, a blossoming homegrown star and are turning heads nationally.In the all-important category of tickets sold, however, the Hawks are not making the progress they would like.Through their first seven games, the Hawks are drawing an average of 17,119, a figure that counts tickets sold and complimentary tickets given away.

The decision on whether Hawks guard Mike Bibby will play against Orlando on Thursday will be a game-day decision.Bibby, who sprained his left ankle in Saturday's loss to New Orleans, missed practice for a third consecutive day Wednesday. The decision will be made at the Thursday morning shootaround at Philips Arena, coach Mike Woodson said.

Authorities say former New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks point guard Dean Meminger was rescued from a fire that destroyed a row of New York City houses and left dozens homeless. More than 200 firefighters battled the Sunday fire in the Bronx.

With Hawks starter nursing a spraigned ankle, the team began testing rookie Jeff Teague with the starting unit.

Hawks guard Mike Bibby's sprained left ankle is very sore, but he is "day to day," team spokesman Arthur Triche said Sunday. Bibby was injured in the the first quarter and played just five minutes of the Hawks' 96-88 loss to New Orleans Saturday night.

Atlanta starting guard Mike Bibby sprained his left ankle in the first quarter of the Hawks' game in New Orleans on Saturday night.Bibby appeared to roll the ankle while coming down from a jump shot about five minutes into the game. Team officials said he would not return.

Rookie Darren Collison had 22 points and 11 assists for his first double-double, and the New Orleans Hornets won their third straight while snapping the Atlanta Hawks' seven-game winning streak, 96-88 on Saturday night.Fellow rookie Marcus Thornton scored 21 for the resurgent Hornets, who made 12 of 17 3-point attempts.

When the NBA and TNT met last spring to discuss the regular-season schedule, one topic of discussion was the Thanksgiving Day game.John Vandegrift, vice president for sports-program planning at Turner Sports, called it one of the “showcase games” of the network’s Thursday night broadcast schedule.

In the Houston Rockets, the Hawks found an opponent as willing to grind as they have been.In the end, it helped the Hawks' cause to have a headbanded dunking machine on their side.Josh Smith's putback of a Mike Bibby miss with .7 seconds remaining ended a wild Friday night at Philips Arena and gave the Hawks a 105-103 win, their seventh in a row.

Coming off the bench for the Rockets was center David Andersen, the Hawks' 2002 second-round draft pick whom the team traded in July to Houston for cash and a future second-round draft pick. Andersen, from Australia, had been playing in Europe. The Hawks had considered signing Andersen this past summer until they re-signed big man Zaza Pachulia.

It almost sounded like a novel sensation for the coach."I feel good about our bench," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "There's times I'm playing five guys off the bench at one time, a whole new lineup."If this was a revelation, it was because a deep bench has not exactly been an advantage Woodson has enjoyed in his six years with the Hawks.

Next for HawksWho: RocketsWhen: 7:30 p.m. todayTV; radio: SPSO; 790* Last season, the Rockets split with the Hawks, with each team winning at home.* Houston ranks seventh in the league in scoring at 103.7 points per game, led by Trevor Ariza's 18.4 points.

At some point, the Hawks will cool off.But that point wasn't Wednesday night.It was Miami's turn to be fed into the Hawks' threshing machine, which chewed up the Heat with a determined defense on All-NBA guard Dwyane Wade and a furious second quarter that helped secure the Hawks' sixth win in a row, 105-90 over the Heat.

With a 9-2 start entering Wednesday night's game, the Hawks led the Southeast Division and Eastern Conference. While his team was predicted widely to finish no better than second in the division behind Orlando, Hawks coach Mike Woodson has put the bug in his players' ears that first place isn't something that they have to relinquish.

Rebounds don't make for great highlights.But as the Hawks have won nine of their first 11 games of the season, including their past five, rebounds and the overall play of big men Al Horford and Josh Smith have been as much a part of the team's success as dramatic 3-pointers and slashing drives to the basket.

They played for three quarters like the same old Hawks. The 2004 model.Then they finished in a fashion that bore little resemblance to those horrid clubs of the past. The Hawks overcame an ungainly start against Portland by imposing their will in the fourth quarter and overtime in a 99-95 win at Philips Arena Monday night.

Rookie guard Jeff Teague said coach Mike Woodson encouraged him to play more aggressively."The last couple games, I've been a little tense," Teague said before Monday's Portland game. "He pulled me to the side [Sunday] and said, ‘The reason they got you was your aggressiveness and the way you play.

Ten games into the season, the 8-2 Hawks have the best record in the Eastern Conference.

The final score cast the matchup about right.The process to get to the Hawks' 121-98 win over the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday night at Philips Arena didn't necessarily follow convention. However, it revealed a certain mettle within the Hawks, who lead the Southeast Division at 8-2, also tied for the best record in the NBA.

The Hawks didn't have a lot to go on in preparing for a New Orleans team playing without its star point guard and a new coach.Hornets general manager Jeff Bower was on the sideline for just his second game as head coach after Byron Scott was fired Thursday.

Hawks coach Mike Woodson pulled the right strings this week.Before the team’s trip to New York, Woodson spent practice time focusing on team defense, particularly improving communication on switches. The result was two wins, notably against Boston on Friday, their first win in the TD Garden in their past seven trips, including the 2008 playoff series.

BOSTON -- A year and a half later, the Hawks got their win in Boston.An energetic rebounding effort, steely will and a horrid three-point night by the home team gave the Hawks an attention-getting 97-86 win at TD Garden over the Celtics.It was a cathartic victory for the Hawks, who lost all four road games to Boston in the first round of the 2008 playoffs in the seven-game series and then lost both regular-season games last season in Boston.

BOSTON -- A year and a half later, the Hawks got their win in Boston.An energetic rebounding effort, steely will and a horrid three-point night by the home team gave the Hawks an attention-getting 97-86 win at sold-out TD Garden over the Celtics.It was a catharsis for the Hawks, who lost all four road games to Boston in the first round of the 2008 playoffs in the seven-game series and then lost both regular-season games last season in Boston.

Forward Marvin Williams, stuck in a slump, put in about 30 minutes of shooting after the team's morning shootaround. Eight games into the season, Williams was shooting 41.8 percent from the floor, well below his career mark of 45 percent.Williams said he was "kind of working on my mechanics, making sure [that] when I'm shooting, it's my shot every time.