At the beginning of this week I had no idea that I would be completing the Philips Arena Trifecta this weekend- Hawks on Friday, Thrashers on Saturday and Hawks again on Sunday. The only ticket I knew about was Sunday’s game, but my father came up with Thrashers tickets on Wednesday and Steve called me Friday afternoon because no one was chomping at the bit to see two teams with less than ten wins go at it.

Steve, Ismail and I went down and arrived at 6:45. For the second time in as many games, they asked how old Ismail is; this time I said 2 1/2. They told me that next time he would need a ticket. I’m running out of entrances to try. Even though it was Steve’s 6th game already, he had yet to see the introductions with the Hawk flying down from the rafters and drum corps banging away. Ismail loved seeing the Hawk again. Last time he had a chance to see the Hawk up close but was too scared to approach it.

JJ went nuts in the first quarter; he couldn’t be stopped and had almost 20 points by the end of the quarter. The second Quarter belonged to Al Harrington; he picked up where JJ left off and hit a ton of threes. By the end of the first half, they were 8-8 from 3-pt. land.

Marbury started off super hot and had almost 20 by the end of the first quarter. However, the Hawks adjusted and were able to shut him down for the rest of the game. I remember looking at the stats with about five minutes left and he only had scored two more buckets since the first quarter.

The key to this game was that the Hawks never let the Knicks make a real run in the second half. If you follow the NBA game, you know its a game of streaks. However, anytime the Hawks would go on a scoring drought, they were able to make up for it defensively. In the end, they totally outplayed the Knicks and earned a well-deserved victory, their 3rd in the last 4 games. That Spurs game and Vote of Confidence for Woody have seemingly lit a fire under this team- they are playing with real enthusiasm and heart.

No real funny stories or calls to speak of- I had a Meredith Baxter-Birney call, but she was gone before I could make it public.

One down, two to go.