Well, apparently Jeff Teague’s ankle isn’t bothering him that much after all. The Hawks point guard led the team with 24 points (4-for-4 from behind the arc) in a resounding 94-72 win over the New Orleans Hornets.

Teague’s status had been questionable after he sprained his left ankle and came out of Friday night’s game, but he played a solid 29 minutes. Guard Willie Green also came up big off the bench with 16 points in 15 minutes.

For the Hornets, it looked like Emeka Okafor was the only one who showed up to play. The center had 13 points and 8 rebounds; the remaining four starters had a combined 27 points and only 7 rebounds.

The win ends the Hawks three-game losing streak against the Hornets and brings them to 3-1 on the current road trip. The team wraps up the trip Tuesday night in Toronto.

The Hawks will head to New Orleans to take on the Hornets tonight at 7 p.m. EST. The Hawks (14-6) are coming off an overtime win against the Pistons and are just a half game out of first behind the Heat. The Hornets (4-15) are in last place in the Southwest Division and have the worst record in the Western Conference. However, they are coming off an impressive win against Orlando in which they held the struggling Magic to only 67 points.

Injury Update: Jeff Teague, who left Friday’s game with a sprained ankle, practiced with the team yesterday but will still be a game-time decision. If he doesn’t start, Coach Larry Drew says Kirk Hinrich will likely take his place.

What to watch for: What will Joe Johnson do? Thus far, the Hawks guard has stepped up his game since the injury to Al Horford and the Hawks have been riding on his success. But the Hornets have a stingy defense and have held the Hawks to less than 90 points the last three times the teams have met.

Between injuries and all the ups and downs, the Hawks don’t seem to have a consistent game plan or lineup so far this season. But whatever they’re doing appears to be working.

Kirk Hinrich seems to be making his way back to his old form, with 5 points and 9 assists in his second game back after shoulder surgery. He played 32 minutes in last night’s 107-101 OT win over the Pistons. There was some uncertainty about what Jeff Teague’s role would be once Hinrich was back, but Larry Drew may be able to prolong that decision for a while. Teague went down with an ankle injury and left the game in the second half. He is still day-to-day.

Joe Johnson had 30 points last night while Josh Smith added 19 points and 11 rebounds. For the Pistons, Greg Monroe led the team with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Next Up: The Hawks will play the New Orleans Hornets Sunday at 7:00 p.m. EST.

The Hawks face a tough test as they begin a five-game road trip tonight in Milwaukee. Over the course of the next eight days, Atlanta faces the Bucks, Spurs, Pistons, Hornets and Raptors.

Currently, the Hawks are tied with the Magic for first place in the Southeast Division and have managed to win despite serious injuries to Kirk Hinrich and Al Horford. But the majority of those wins have come at home– Atlanta is 8-1 at Philips Arena but only 4-4 on the road.

For Atlanta, it will be the first time the team faces the Bucks, Spurs, Pistons and Hornets this season. In their last game against the Raptors, the Hawks won 93-84. Although the Bucks are only 6-9 on the season, they are coming off a 91-82 win over the Heat. Tonight’s game will be at 8:00 p.m. EST.

Hawks guard Kirk Hinrich may be available for the team’s upcoming 5-game road trip starting tomorrow night in Milwaukee. Hinrich had surgery on his left shoulder in November. Initial reports had an estimated recovery time of three to four months.

While it is uncertain whether Hinrich will get in a game during the road trip, he’ll travel with the team and hopes to play:

“I hope I’ll be playing sometime on this trip,” he said.

Hinrich’s comeback would bring a much needed spark to the team, particularly in light of Al Horford’s potentially season-ending injury.

The Hawks will play the Bucks, Spurs, Pistons, Hornets and Raptors over the next nine days.

The Hawks recently released their preseason schedule set to begin on October 10. The team’s seven-game preseason is stacked with Western Conference teams including the Lakers, Clippers, Hornets and the 2011 champion Mavericks. The first game  will be against the Detroit Pistons at Philips Arena.

The team’s first regular season game is against the Minnesota Timberwolves on November 2.

So far, no games have been cancelled due to the lockout, and the box office is open for business. Not surprisingly, plenty of tickets are still left.

The former Hawks head coach is now considering a position with the New York Knicks. Woodson recently lost his campaign for the Detroit Pistons’ job to Lawrence Frank making him 0-for-2 so far this summer. Woodson also interviewed to be the head coach for Houston back in April, but the Rockets ended up selecting Kevin McHale for the position.

Don’t worry, don’t worry, current Knicks’ head coach Mike D’Antoni isn’t going anywhere. The open position is for a defensive assistant at the behest of D’Antoni. Sadly, Woodson actually finds himself as the Lawrence Frank-rebound option yet again; according to the NY Post, D’Antoni’s first choice was actually Frank before he was wooed away by the Pistons. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride for poor Mike.

Well, maybe third time’s a charm, and Woodson will have found his way back to basketball in New York.

The Detroit Pistons fired head coach, John Kuester in early June and have been in the process of interviewing potential replacements. Former Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Woodson was among the first interviewees and remains in the running. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, Woodson and current Celtics assistant Lawrence Frank are the remaining options the team is considering, though Woodson is considered the frontrunner:

“…sources say that former Pistons assistant Mike Woodson is still the closest thing to a favorite, thanks largely to Woodson’s good working relationship with Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars and the fact that Detroit would know exactly what it’s getting after Woodson’s work under Larry Brown during the Pistons’ 2004 title run.”

Woodson was also considered for the Rockets’ head coaching position earlier in the year. He compiled a 206-286 (.419) record while with the Hawks.

Mike Woodson

The Pistons are in search of a new head coach and former Hawks coach Mike Woodson might answer the call.

John Kuester, head coach of the Detroit Pistons since 2009, was fired this past Sunday. Kuester had compiled a 57-107 record in his two years with Detroit, was known for constantly butting heads with several of the team’s veterans (Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rodney Stuckey) and even managed to instigate a player uprising that nearly resulted in a full-out boycott.

Former Hawks coach Mike Woodson

So the team could certainly use a fresh face. Woodson is a strong candidate, although I’m not sure he completely fits the bill. The Pistons are looking to instill a renewed emphasis on defense next season, and Woodson was known for coaching the Hawks with a tedious, isolation-focused offense.

On the other hand, Woodson played an integral role in shaping the Piston’s defense as an assistant coach under Mike Brown in 2003-2004 when they won the championship. Woodson was known for getting the most out of defensive players, and Detroit managed to limit opponents to 41% shooting from the field that season.

So the change in philosophy Woodson demonstrated in Atlanta could be the product of the talent he was working with rather than a fundamental shift in coaching style.

Other potential candidates for the job include Bucks assistant Kelvin Sampson and Timberwolves assistant Bill Laimbeer. It is rumored that Kuester will head to LA for an assistant coaching position under Brown who was recently appointed Lakers head coach.

So I have a confession to make. My fascination with statistics in sports really originated from my baseball-watching activities, back when I still thought of myself as more of a math-and-science kind of gal. You can bet I knew my 13 times tables better than any other 4th grader because Bobby Cox used a 13-pitch-per-inning benchmark to gauge his pitchers’ efficiency, and obviously I had to follow along as well.

I didn’t follow basketball stats quite as well, maybe because of the fast-paced nature of the game. I mean, there is a lot more time to discuss things like WHIP and OPS when the ball is being thrown around the horn, or the catcher is taking his 3249873294th trip to the mound. And, a lot of the more nuanced statistics in basketball (like how to calculate win shares) were influenced by the great baseball sabermetrician himself, Bill James.

I have only recently begun to really engage in the world of basketball statistics, delving for the first time into anything more complicated than PER (player efficiency ratings). Although PER is no simple formula itself either– I just find that it’s just referenced a lot more than things like Pythagorean Wins (which I still don’t get).

So let’s go with my new stat of the day which I do find pretty useful– eFG% (effective field goal percentage). Basically, it’s a slightly more precise version of field goal percentage that adjusts for 3-point shots: whereas FG% is simply (field goals made)/(field goals attempted), eFG% is (field goals made + (0.5 x 3-pointers made))/(field goal attempts).

Why, might you ask, am I launching into this very in-depth discussion of statistics?

Well, not surprisingly, it turns out that eFG% is pretty key to the Hawks’ success. When Hawks eFG% > Opponent eFG%, Atlanta is 31-3. When Opponent eFG% > Hawks eFG%, the team is 8-27. The team’s eFG% average for the season is 50.3% compared to 48.8% by their opponents; in our recent losses against the Heat and Nuggets, we’ve put up 46.2%/61.3% and 44.5%/58.2% Hawks-Opponent ratios.

But the interesting thing about this fun fact is that while the Hawks’ eFG% is slightly lower than their season average in these two losses, our opponents’ eFG% is much higher that the season average for what the Hawks have allowed, indicating that the team’s defense is what has been letting up more. I found this surprising given what I’ve seen over the past few games– I would definitely have guessed that poor shooting was accounting for our struggles more so than defense. Sometimes the stats don’t always match what meets the eye. Or perhaps “statistics are in the eye of the beholder.”

Ok, my head is spinning from all these numbers. Let’s get back to some basketball and back in the win column. Hopefully the Hawks can make it happen against the Pistons (48.9% eFG season average, in case you were wondering) this afternoon.