</p> <span class="template"><span class="body"> The Hawks have problems.</p> Plenty of them.</p> </span></span>But none that can't be fixed, according to veteran point guard Anthony Johnson.</p> "You finish the first month of the season [6-9], and the reality is we suffered through injuries, didn't play particularly well and we're still right in the thick of things," Johnson said. "As crazy as that sounds, it's actually a positive thing. Knowing you can compete without playing at your highest level is an encouraging sign for this team.</p> "We don't want to spend the entire season like that, obviously. We know we have work to do. But it's not like we've played our best the first month, spent all our energy up and don't have anything left. We can still take it to another level if we buckle down and get it all together."</p> The first step in that process was a clear-the-air meeting Saturday with all 15 players on the roster discussing where they've been since training camp and where they're headed the next five months.</p> The Hawks' Jekyll and Hyde personality was on full display in the final week of the first month of the season, when they looked dreadful one night in a loss in Chicago and then returned home the next night to record a 16-point win over Milwaukee.</p> Friday night's sluggish effort in a home loss to New Orleans was the latest in a string of energy-deficient performances that have kept the Hawks from getting the hot start they envisioned after recording victories against Dallas and Phoenix in the first week of the season.</p> The culprit Friday night, as has been the case for many of their losses, was a strained offensive effort that included more one-on-one play than ball sharing.</p> Even in victory, the Hawks have been relatively stagnant on offense, having gone seven straight games without scoring 100 points.</p> "We're going so hard on this in practice, to come out in games and not be able to execute is just crazy," Marvin Williams said. "I mean, guys are going extremely hard in practice, and then we seem to get into the game and let up a little bit. It makes no sense. And that's something we, as a team, have to correct."</p> Johnson believes that's another one of those issues that has a fairly reasonable solution.</p> "Our spacing was not what it needed to be [Friday night]," he said. "That's something we've got to work on at practice, getting to spots, and making sure guys know whenever someone's penetrating, they have to have bailouts. We're not getting to our bailout spots. It's putting the ball-handler in tough situation, and it leads to a lot of turnovers."</p> The Hawks average nearly as many turnovers (16.1) as they do assists (19.1), numbers close enough to cause even the most level-headed person to rewind the tape on the first month of the season and examine what has transpired.</p>
