Zaza replaces Horford in lineup

Zaza Pachulia replaced Al Horford in the Hawks’ starting lineup just minutes before the start of Saturday’s game against Dallas at American Airlines Center.

Horford turned his right ankle in the second half of Friday’s win over New York at Philips Arena but returned to the game later. With a flight to Dallas late Friday night, Hawks coach Mike Woodson said he was worried that Horford might struggle with the injury a bit Saturday, but he gave no indication before the game that Horford might not be able to play Saturday.

Yet he inserted Pachulia into the starting lineup and Horford was listed as “questionable” for the game.

Time management

With a week packed with travel and back-to-back games, one of Woodson’s biggest chores will be trying to strike the right balance between work time and rest time for his team.

The Hawks play next Tuesday in Houston and then Wednesday in San Antonio before traveling to Miami on Thursday for a Friday night game against the Heat. They will fly home immediately afterward for a Saturday game against Cleveland.

“We’ll probably take [today] off and then come back Monday and get a good day of work in and then be ready to go Tuesday night,” Woodson said. “But there’s no doubt it’s tough to carve out time for these guys to rest their legs when you’re playing as much as we are this week.”

Joe Johnson isn’t worried about finding time to rest. He’s more concerned with finding enough time to prepare for the second opponent in back-to-back games.

“Rest is nice but we have to make sure we’re in the gym getting shots up and going over the things we need to in order to be prepared,” Johnson said. “The pounding is going to take a toll on your body. That’s guaranteed. We just have to be prepared to fight through it this week.”

Mr. Law comes home

Acie Law IV missed Friday’s game with flu-like symptoms but there was no way the Dallas native was going to miss Saturday’s homecoming game.

Law had 80 local children in the arena as guests of his foundation; he had 100 people at the game altogether.

The children were from various local recreation centers, at-risk area Dallas schools and from the summer camp he put on after his rookie season. They each received ticket to the game as well as vouchers for food and drinks and T-shirts commemorating the event.