Marvin Williams hurt in Hawks preseason win

Hawks coach Mike Woodson mentioned in passing this summer that he might tinker with his lineup and “play big” if it fit his team’s needs.

The need arose Monday night at Philips Arena when starting small forward Marvin Williams sprained his left thumb in the first quarter of the Hawks’ preseason home opener against Charlotte.

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Rich Addicks/raddicks@ajc.com

Hawks guard Acie Law glides to the basket for the game-winning layup.

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Williams finished the half but didn’t play after halftime, forcing Woodson to come up with something that could shake his team up after a lackluster first-half effort.

So he went with Zaza Pachulia at center — with Al Horford shifting over from center to power forward and Josh Smith from power forward to small forward — and watched his team wake up from that first-half slumber within the first few seconds of the third quarter.

The Hawks instantly became a better rebounding frontline and a more aggressive and active team inside on the offensive end. They went from trailing by seven at halftime to leading by as many five points late in the third quarter, eventually winning the game 88-87, courtesy of Acie Law IV’s driving layup with 4.6 seconds to play.

“The big key is that a big body like Zaza frees both Josh and myself up a lot more and when we do that Josh is able to get out on the break and run the break,” Horford said after making a game-saving block of a Gerald Wallace layup at the buzzer to seal the win. “It’s just a big advantage for us because either me or Zaza can get the rebound and push it up the floor and have our best finisher out there on the wing running. Josh is a big mismatch for a lot of teams and we need to take advantage of that as much as we can.”

Depending on how long Williams is sidelined, it’s a lineup the Hawks may have to lean on with the start of the regular season, Oct. 29 in Orlando, just around the corner.

In fact, they may be forced to use it for that game against the Magic, a game Williams is suspended for as penalty for the flagrant foul he put on Rajon Rondo in Game 7 of the Hawks’ playoff series in May against Boston.

“I experimented with it because we might have to play big,” Woodson said. “I’m just tinkering with it now just to see. But we played a few games with it down the stretch last season. And I thought it was pretty good to start the third quarter. We kind of plugged it up defensively and rebounded the ball and it get it out and get a few fast break points that kind of got us going.”

The change certainly energized members of the Hawks’ bench, namely Pachulia and reserve guard Flip Murray, who put on a clinic during one second-half stretch with Bobcats rookie guard D.J. Augustin on the receiving end of the instruction.

Pachulia finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, Murray with nine points, four assists and two steals and Mo Evans 12 points, two assists and a steal.

“I don’t know what it was but it worked out for us,” said Law, who joined Joe Johnson (team-high 17 points) and Smith (16 points, four rebounds and two blocks) as starters to score in double figures. “Coach wanted a different look and [Smith] is so versatile. You can use him in so many different ways, and that matchup mismatch worked out for us.”