Hawks’ Smith off to hot start

Josh Smith couldn’t wait for Game 1 start to Sunday night at Philips Arena.

He was so eager to get going that he left his house hours early to get to the arena first and begin preparations for his second trip to the playoffs.

Enlarge this image

AP

Marvin Williams, who missed 16 games with a lower back injury, scored 10 points for the Hawks.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Box score • Standings • Stats
• Photos: Game | Scene
• Blogs: Bradley | Sekou

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

“After watching all those games Saturday and knowing we weren’t going until 8 [p.m.] I just had to get out of the house,” he said. “I was going crazy. I wanted to just get into the arena and find some space to get mentally prepared.”

Hawks reserve swingman Mario West is usually the first to the arena and the first on the court for his pregame workout routine. So you can imagine his surprise when he showed up Sunday afternoon and saw Smith’s clothes already hanging in his locker.

“That right there let me know Josh was ready to go,” West said. “I loved seeing that.”

Smith said the difference between starting the playoffs on the road, as the Hawks did last year, is totally different from starting with home-court advantage.

All of the Saturday’s upsets of the home teams served as the perfect wake-up call, not that the Hawks needed one.

“Nobody is going to hand anything to you,” Smith said. “It was real surprising to see those teams lose at home. But we understand the importance of every game and we certainly don’t want to give any of our home games away.”

Williams starts hot

Marvin Williams certainly got the memo, scoring seven straight points to help the Hawks get off to a good start.

Never mind that he played just twice in the Hawks’ last 18 games. He missed 16 straight with a lower back injury that early on the Hawks thought might end his season.

Williams started Sunday and didn’t miss in his first five minutes. He scored seven points in 90 seconds, the first on a dunk on a fast break, then on a running jumper and then on a deep 3-pointer, before giving way to Mo Evans for an early breather.

“It’s the playoffs,” Williams said with a smile in the locker room before the game. “You know I’m ready.”

Lineup shuffle

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra pulled the first stunner of this series before opening tip when he inserted veteran shooter James Jones into his starting lineup at small forward in place of Jamario Moon.

Jones managed just one other start all season, a Feb. 18 home loss to Minnesota.

Claxton, Hunter active

The Hawks had a last minute roster shuffle of their own. Speedy Claxton and Othello Hunter replaced Randolph Morris and Thomas Gardner on the active list.

Hawks coach Mike Woodson said both players “earned the right” to suit up in Game 1, but that he was keeping things fluid depending on how the series played out.

“We’re really going to have to just see how things go,” he said. “We don’t know how things are going to go. That’s the beauty of these playoff rosters, they can change every night depending on the matchups.”