Josh Smith's memory of what transpired Jan. 4 in Indianapolis is clear.

The Hawks showed up at Conseco Fieldhouse feeling good about their season. They'd won five of their past seven games. They were thinking about the playoffs and could make a statement by beating up the wounded Indiana Pacers.

RENEE' HANNANS HENRY/AJC (ENLARGE)

Veteran Mike Bibby and fellow starting guard Joe Johnson have carried the Hawks down the stretch, coach Mike Woodson says. The Hawks are a game above .500 since they acquired Bibby.

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The Hawks promptly got their noses bloodied in a 113-91 beatdown.

"Last time we came up here, we got our [behinds] whipped," Smith said. "You can't sugarcoat it. They smashed us."

That can't happen Tuesday against the Pacers. The stakes are too high for the Hawks (36-41), who are inching closer to clinching a playoff berth for the first time in nine seasons.

Standing in their way is a Pacers team (33-44) that's chasing them in the Eastern Conference standings.

With a win tonight, the Hawks can eliminate any doubt about where they're headed when the regular season ends. They can also mathematically eliminate the Pacers from the postseason — a win gives them a four-game cushion with four games remaining and they'd own the tiebreaker over the Pacers.

"Don't think we don't know it, that we don't feel it," Smith said by phone after the Hawks wrapped up practice Monday in Indianapolis. "We have to keep our eyes on the prize right now. We know that, too. But if we play like we did in [Saturday's win] in Philadelphia ... we just have to handle our business."

Handling business away from home this season has been the Hawks' weakness. Of the 16 teams currently in place for the playoffs, the Hawks have the smallest number of road wins (11, to 27 losses), five fewer than Philadelphia, which has the next-lowest total.

Their season-long struggles on the road don't tell the entire story.

The Hawks have won four of their past six road games during their playoff surge and 10 of their past 13 games overall.

With Mike Bibby healthy, they've found ways to combat their youth and inexperience with a seasoned big-game player. He's paired alongside Joe Johnson, named the Eastern Conference player of the week on Monday, in the backcourt.

"I don't think there is any doubt that Bibby and Joe have been the guys carrying us on their backs down the stretch here," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "That composure in a tough situation, that experience that comes with being in a playoff environment, that is what we need from those guys.

"We also need for all of our guys to step up and play the way they have lately to give us a chance to do what we need to do because we're so close now. And nobody has stepped aside for us to just walk into the playoffs. We've had to fight to get this far and we'll have to keep fighting to keep playing [after the regular season has ended]."

Woodson, an Indiana schoolboy legend, could have the distinction of eliminating the team most of his family still roots for.

Smith said the Hawks have been in "fight" mode for weeks. The alarm was sounded last month when they saw their playoff chances slipping away. They were 12 games under .500 and outside the top eight.

"We decided then that we had to scrap and claw our way back into this thing," Smith said. "We've had our ups and downs along that way, but we're in a good position now. We just have to finish what we started."