Lang Whitaker is many things - executive editor of Slam Magazine, a columnist for SI.com, and most importantly, a die-hard Hawks fan. For 2007-08 , Lang will be sharing his thoughts on the team in an exclusive column for Hawks.com. Check back every Wednesday throughout the season to read his latest musings, and read him every day at www.SLAMonline.com

"A Big Week Ahead"
by Lang Whitaker

Give me a minute, as I'm still trying to catch my breath from last night's Warriors game. Finally, the Hawks were able to run and gun, and through the first half the Hawks looked like Loyola Marymount circa the late '80s. Unfortunately, they looked like Georgia State in the second half, as the Warriors blew them out of the Highlight Factory.

The thing is, I think that's the way we need to play every night: push the ball, dictate tempo, force the action. Make teams play our style of ball, instead of happily slipping into our halfcourt offense whenever an opponent starts slowing things down.

Now, the one thing about our halfcourt offense is that it seems markedly better since The Trade brought us Mike Bibby. I love how we've been able to run that Bibby/JJ pick-and-roll on the wing, which leaves us with two guys who can knock down a jumper if the other guy is doubled. And even more promising, it seems like we're seeing less of two things that have been haunting me all season: Josh Smith firing up three-pointers as the shot clock winds down and Joe Johnson going into that slow-motion one-on-one dribbling from the top of the key. Now we're able to move the ball and, thankfully, stop settling for bad shots. At least not as often.

As promising as our improved halfcourt game is, I still think what we saw last night is the answer. That should be the Hawks, a fearless, tireless team. OK, so we lost. And yes, the Warriors scored something like 287 points against us. But not every team is going to shoot 55 percent from the floor (and make 17 threes while shooting 53 percent from behind the line). And not every team is going to be able to keep up with us like that.

This is a huge week ahead of us. We're a game back of the Nets for the 8th seed, and we have 4.25 games to play. We have N'awlins tonight, but then we're at Charlotte, we host Miami for a special overtime and then a real game, and then we're at Orlando. I'm hoping we go at least 3-2 in that stretch.

If we're going to make the Playoffs this season, at some point this team and this franchise needs to stand up and be counted. Stop waiting for other people to lose, stop hoping we back our way in. We just need to remember to be proactive instead of being reactive.

After all, making things happen is the real Atlanta spirit.

MAILING IT IN…

This week we hear from reader Stacy, who makes me feel old by writing…

Mr. Lang,

 What do you think about trading Marvin Williams for J.R Smith? Smith can shoot it and puts up a lot of points. Who knows maybe we could get a draft pick out of it.

First of all, don't call me "Mr." Anyone else calls me "Mr." and I'm putting your email address into about 1,000 spam engines.

Anyway, a few problems with your trade suggestion, the most obvious being that the trade deadline passed last week, so we can't make any trades. Secondly, J.R. Smith is more of a two guard than a three, and we already have this guy named Joe Johnson who plays the two.

But I'm glad you brought up Marvin, because when you look at his split stats, after a killer December he had a good January and then an unacceptable February. Even more alarming is Marv's field goal percentage has plummeted the last few months, from over 50 percent down around 35 percent.

I really like Marvin, both as a player and a person, yet I'm still waiting for him to become more assertive on the court. It's coming, I'm sure. Hopefully sooner than later.

Lang Whitaker is the executive editor of SLAM magazine and writes daily at SLAMonline.com. He can be reached at lang@harris-pub.com. The best email he receives each week will run in this column.