Marvin Williams questions preseason logic

Auburn Hills, Mich. — When Marvin Williams first saw that the Hawks’ preseason schedule he thought it was a joke. After all, it included a three-game road trip the first week and a trip to Detroit as the finale.

“Who would do that?” he said. “You play at Orlando, then Phoenix and then Portland (in Kansas City) in the span of five days and it already feels like one of our long road trips during the [regular] season. There’s nothing ‘preseason’ about it.”

With a daunting 10 of their first 16 regular-season games on the road, the Hawks couldn’t have asked for a better cheat sheet than that preseason slate. It concludes tonight at the Palace of Auburn Hills against the Pistons.

Despite his professed desire to win every preseason game, the best Mike Woodson’s team can do is finish 4-4 with a win tonight.

Rather than wins, Woodson has accumulated a wealth of data about his team, particularly his newcomers, and how they respond to the trials and tribulations that come with working on the road in the NBA.

After winning just 12 road games a year ago, Woodson has placed a strong emphasis on improving his team’s fortunes away from Philips Arena.

Solve that problem and maintain a strong presence at home, he theorized, and a 50-win season goes from a pipe dream to a realistic benchmark for a team trying to achieve new heights.

“Anybody can see that of all the ways we have to get better, and there are plenty of them, finding a way to win on the road is right at the top of the list,” Woodson said. “If you just go back to last season and look at all the games we played on the road where we had chances to win and didn’t, for whatever reasons, it changes your season around dramatically if you find ways to pull those games out.

“Learning how to focus and maintain away from home is something that veteran teams tend to do better than younger teams. And we’re not young anymore. We should expect to win our share of road games and then be expected to take care of our home as well.”

Winning against the Pistons tonight got a little bit tougher when Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson was left home for the trip, so he could rest his sore groin.

But the Hawks will have Williams back — he’s missed the past 13 quarters of preseason action with a sprained ligament in the thumb on his non-shooting hand.

Both Williams and reserve guard Mo Evans are expected to be available against the Pistons. Evans sat out Monday’s loss to Orlando at Philips Arena after needing stitches in his lip to close a gash suffered in a win in Charlotte last Saturday.

“We’re at the point now where [the Oct. 29 regular season opener in] Orlando is right around the corner so we need everybody back healthy and ready to go,” second-year Hawks center Al Horford said. “Just going by the way things went last year, for me at least, now is the time you want to really be getting into form. You really want to be in a good rhythm as a group.

“Everybody needs to be on the same page and gearing up for the regular season, because a slow start puts you behind the curve. And that’s not where we want to be, not with the schedule we have to start the season.”