Hawks intent on holding serve at home

By Sekou Smith

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The numbers stayed on the dry-erase board in the Hawks' locker room for three full days as a reminder.

Last season's home record (31-10) was written in bold across the top with the road record just as bold right below it (16-25).

Hawks coach Mike Woodson wanted to make sure his players understand that while the top batch of numbers are fine and the bottom batch need serious work, there's no room for slippage on either side.

It turns out it wasn’t a necessary motivational tool.

His players already had such things on their minds.

"Don't think we haven’t gone back and detailed the games we should have won but didn't," Hawks captain Joe Johnson said. "That's just human nature. At the end of a season you're going to go back and examine things and figure out your strengths and weaknesses. We were [dang] good at home, and we were sketchy at best away from home."

After hosting Washington on Friday night, the Hawks will play six of their next seven games on the road, including a Sunday night matchup with the reigning world champion Los Angeles Lakers. That gives both games an extremely high level of importance to the Hawks, now that they're talking seriously about chasing 50-win seasons and playoff berths after years of dreaming about them.

"We talked about it before last season," Woodson said. "I'm sure these guys are probably tired of me harping on it, but if we're talking about taking that next step, if we're going to try and get to 50-plus wins, we had to first establish ourselves at home and then go out and do the same thing on the road. I think we showed last year that we were among the best teams in the league on our own floor. And we need to maintain that this year, first and foremost."

They found solace at home last season, making up for the miscues away from home by owning their own floor for the first time in years. Never was that home edge more important than in the first round of the playoffs against Miami, granted the Hawks had to win a game in Miami to make sure they got the series to deciding Game 7 on their own floor.

Still, without that home-court advantage to fall back on, their playoff run might have ended before the conference semifinals.

"I put it all on our fans," Josh Smith said. "They're the ones that have turned Philips Arena into what it is. We feed off of them when we're here, and we struggle without them on the road. The best teams in the league, the best of the very best, don't care where they play. We have to adopt that sort of attitude of wanting to silence crowds on the road while still taking care of our business when we're here."

Facing one of the league's most notorious crowd silencers Friday night in Gilbert Arenas, the Wizards' All-Star guard who is back from a nearly two-year layoff, presents the perfect challenge for the Hawks.

Arenas scorched the Mavericks for 29 points and nine assists in the Wizards' 102-91 win Tuesday night in Dallas, the season opener for both teams. He has done the same sorts of things here in the past.

"We're dealing with not only a dangerous guy in Gilbert, we’re dealing with a dangerous team in the Wizards," Marvin Williams said. "What we saw from them last week [in a preseason rout] won't be anything like what they'll bring this time. So it's really about us and how mature we are about handling our business here at home, especially against a tough divisional foe like the Wizards."

Woodson said he'll clear up any confusion about where the priorities should be with his new theory. ‘"Every game is important, I don’t care where it's played," he said. "But without a doubt, it's more important to take care of your business here at home. We've got to win at home."