El Segundo, Calif. —- The meet and greet took place in the lobby of the Hawks' Beverly Hills hotel Monday afternoon.

Mike Bibby, meet the Hawks.

Hawks, meet your new point guard.

It was as short and sweet as that.

By the time the Hawks' bus ride to the Los Angeles Lakers' practice facility ended, the pleasantries were over, too.

Hawks general manager Billy Knight stalked the sideline as the players milled about, making sure they understood as much.

"Let's go fellas," he barked, "it's time to go to work."

Bibby couldn't hit the floor Monday until halfway through practice, when Saturday's trade was rubber stamped by the league. So he was relegated to the role of a spectator for the first hour of practice, the Hawks' first session since before the All-Star break and only workout before tonight's game against the Lakers.

He left Jeremy Richardson, the MVP of Saturday's NBDL All-Star Game the Hawks signed Monday, to make all the major adjustments early. The 6-foot-7 Richardson's addition restored the Hawks' roster to 13 players.

Bibby got his playbook, practice gear and plenty of love from teammates, who were energized by the addition of one of the league's best point guards.

"Sometimes it takes some change to get you going," said Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson.

"It's a new ballgame," Josh Smith said. "We're in a unique position right now, with a chance to sort of reinvent ourselves on the fly here, and guys have to be ready to take advantage of it."

Bibby sat courtside until getting the go-ahead to join his new teammates. The minute he got on the floor, the tenor of the session changed dramatically.

The Hawks' pick-and-roll sets got sharper instantly. The little inside passes in transition that rarely found their mark before were on the money now. Bibby waited all of 15 seconds to start leading, playfully chiding Josh Smith and Al Horford to "run with me, run with me" on a fast break during part of the full-court scrimmage portion of practice.

"We got to look every chance we get, even the little creases, he'll find you," Smith said. "He sees the opening even before it happens. I'm not used to that."

Bibby said his teammates better get used to it, because they're going to see heavy doses of it every night.

"I told them I'm going get it to them," Bibby said after practice. "One of my strong assets is being a strong shooter, so I have to shoot it to be a threat. I'm going to shoot it sometimes. But I'm not going to shoot it every time. I've got a lot of young horses out here, so I'm going to get it to them."

Coach Mike Woodson was just as eager to get Bibby on the floor. He thought he'd have to wait until this morning's shootaround practice.

Monday did allow him some quality time with his new point guard, though, and a chance to let him know exactly what will be expected of him with the Hawks at 21-28 and with 33 games left to chase a playoff spot.

"He has to run this team," Woodson said. "We haven't had a guy like him in this position before, a starter, a guy who's run a team, a playoff team, for a number of years. No disrespect to Anthony Johnson and Tyronn Lue, but we just haven't had that.

"And we don't have time to wait. I'm going to turn him loose. And everybody has to be ready to play at the level they were playing at before all this [trade stuff] happened. Really, we need guys to take it to another level."

The Hawks enter tonight's game on a four-game losing streak. If they plan on ending it sometime during this five-game Western Conference trip, they'll have to integrate Bibby into the fabric of this team as quickly as possible.

"I told Mike and he understands that we have to play with urgency right now, every possession and every night," Woodson said.

NEXT FOR HAWKS

> Who: at Lakers

> When: 10:30 p.m. today

> TV; radio: SportSouth; 790 AM