<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Knowing what lies ahead in the next 10 days won't make the journey any easier for the Hawks. Five games in 10 days, and every second of every minute before, during and after this trip will be scrutinized in ways these Hawks haven't seen. That's mostly because they've never been here — 17-20 and in the playoff conversation this late in the season. The significance of this trip, which begins against Denver Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center, and the rest of the rugged road beyond it, has escaped no one in the Hawks' locker room. "We're going to find out what we're made of now," Hawks captain Joe Johnson said. "And we know that people are questioning us, wondering if we're going to fold up now that we've got to deal with some adversity. I don't think that we are. But it remains to be seen how we will respond." The Hawks haven't responded well to progress, following up a 9-4 December run with a 3-7 mark so far this month. They're 5-11 on the road this season. "Just being in this position, three games down from .500, is something I didn't think we'd be dealing with right now," Josh Smith said. "We're at least five to six games off of the pace we set for ourselves in December, and that's a huge disappointment. We feel like we're a better team than that. We know we are. But we haven't played like it. "We haven't played up to our potential the past few weeks, and it's really a mystery as to why that is, because we've played well enough to win some games that we just couldn't seem to pull out. So we have to get out here on the road and get it back together."</div> Atlanta Journal-Constitution
