<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Hawks have been here before, laughing and smiling as they go through another grueling practice after winning multiple games. They've lived through the good locker room vibrations when things are going well, when they appeared to be on the cusp of a real breakthrough, only to see it go up in smoke in their very next game. Winners of three straight games for just the second time this season, the Hawks have a chance to make it four straight with a win over a hot Philadelphia team ? the 76ers have won seven straight ? tonight at Philips Arena. So how is anyone supposed to convince these Hawks that they can overcome their own mental hurdle now? "Tell them don't wake up, keep playing like they're playing," Hawks coach Mike Woodson responded with a laugh. "This team right now, I keep telling them they have to do everything right. The way we've been playing the last three games, we are doing everything right on both ends of the floor. "The last three games, there has been a different focus, for whatever reasons. It might have something to do with [Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson] being out. In our case, it's given guys an opportunity to blossom even more. They could have very easily gone the other way. But they haven't. That's a credit to the guys in that locker room." It's a relatively new phenomenon for the Hawks (25-39), who have countered every positive stretch before this one with a string of blunders. They won four straight games after a season-opening road loss to the 76ers and promptly lost four straight games after that. They also won three straight games from Jan. 12 to Jan. 17 before dropping back-to-back games to Southeast Division rival Charlotte on Jan. 19 and 20 ? the Hawks did finish January with an 8-7 record, their first winning month in nearly three years. So, here they are again ? this time without Johnson, who is out with a bruised calf ? trying to win four straight home games for the first time since April 2003. "I think it's a matter of somebody stepping in and making sure we're not comfortable with winning three straight," Hawks guard Salim Stoudamire said. "I think in the past we got comfortable with what we were doing. We got complacent. We got overexcited with the way we were playing and we didn't really know how to handle success. "But when you've been losing for so long, that's one of the things you have to learn as a team." It's a lesson the 76ers (25-38) have learned well since trading Allen Iverson to Denver in December. Not only do they own the Eastern Conference's longest winning streak, but they've also quietly crept to within striking distance of the eighth and final playoff spot.</div> Source
