Boston — Hawks forward Marvin Williams said he's ready to play in Game 7 of the first-round playoff series with Boston this afternoon, even if that means playing with some discomfort in the left knee he sprained late in the Hawks' Game 6 victory Friday night at Philips Arena.

"I'm good," Williams said Saturday afternoon. "I ready to go. This is Game 7, man. Nobody wants to miss Game 7 of anything."

Williams led the Hawks with 18 points Friday and also spent much of his night, as he has every other one in this series, trying to keep Celtics captain and All-Star Paul Pierce under wraps.

Williams suffered his injury with nine minutes to play when he crashed into Pierce.

With Williams hobbling around the locker room after Game 6, neither he nor Hawks coach Mike Woodson was sure what his status would be for Game 7.

Saturday morning, though, Williams said he was able to move around better. And with another day to get treatment, he and Woodson seemed convinced Williams is ready to go.

"With all the hard work he's put in, I just can't see Marvin not being out there," Woodson said.

Hawks say pressure entirely on Celtics

The question of pressure, and which team is dealing with it better, will no doubt be a topic of discussion once Game 7 starts.

Beforehand, however, the Hawks were playing up their underdog status.

"Pressure?" point guard Mike Bibby said. "There's no pressure on us. We're not the ones that won 66 games [during the regular season]."

Williams said if there's any doubt about where the pressure lies, all anyone needs to do is tune in and watch the experts explain it all away.

"We weren't supposed to be here anyway," he said. "There's no pressure on us. We win a game, they were supposed to beat us in five [games]. We win another one, they're supposed to beat us in six. There wasn't supposed to be a Game 7.

"So there's no pressure on us. We just have to continue playing the way we have been and see who's standing at the end."

Younger legs seen as edge for Hawks

With just one day for both teams to travel and rest from Game 6, the younger Hawks couldn't help but see it as an advantage.

Never mind that they've had their heads handed to them five straight times in Boston this season, in Games 1, 2 and 5 and in two regular-season meetings.

The Hawks are scoring 20 fewer points per game here as opposed to in Atlanta. But younger muscles tend to rebound faster than older ones, forward Josh Smith said.

"It's not like we're counting on that and that's all we're going into this game with," Smith said. "But we think it's going to be a factor. That fatigue is real. When you see guys bent over and strangling their shorts, that means they're tired. And if we run the way we want to, you'll see a lot of that [today]."