Williams returns in limited role

Cleveland — Hawks coach Mike Woodson used Tuesday morning’s shootaround practice to take a final look at forward Marvin Williams to make sure he was ready to play after missing four of the final five games of the Miami series and playing only five minutes in Game 6.

While Williams’ right wrist remains an issue, both Woodson and Williams believe he can play limited minutes and help try to slow down LeBron James and the rest of Cleveland’s frontcourt rotation.

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Marvin Williams, who did not start because of his injured wrist, steals the ball from LeBron James as he attempted to drive to the basket.

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“I’m going to start working him back in with some minutes now that we’re in a new series,” Woodson said. “He told me this morning he was good to go, so we’ve got to try to work his minutes up, at least to 20 minutes. If I can give him more I’ll give him more.”

Williams said he shot a little bit Tuesday and his wrist still bothered him, but it’s a pain that won’t go away soon.

“It’s going to be what it is,” Williams said. “I can play through it, though. So I’m not stressing it. I think the days I spent not shooting at all really helped me. Like I told coach, it’s not going to get completely better in the playoffs, so I can just play like this and hopefully, help out as best I can.”

Hawks’ approach to series

Having survived the pressure cooker that was Game 7 against Miami on Sunday, the Hawks had a relative calm about them before Tuesday’s series opener against Cleveland.

“It’s a lot like Boston was last year,” Marvin Williams said of the Hawks’ battle against the top-seeded Celtics in the first round. “There’s no added pressure on us because, if you let people tell it, we don’t belong.”

The Hawks thrived in that atmosphere against the Celtics, pushing the eventual champs to seven games before getting blown out in the finale. There’s no fear of the unknown this time, now that the Hawks are veterans of back-to-back seven-game series.

“I think the Celtics taught us how to play playoff basketball,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. “We were probably scared as hell when we went down there, it being our first time in [the playoffs]. Then we got home and won Game 3, it was a different spin in that series. We got our confidence going, and they truly believed they could beat the Celtics. … I thought it prepared us for this season.

“Our summer play and coming back for veteran’s camp, I thought it really pushed guys in the right direction. It pushed guys to do the right things. And we set goals, and some of our goals were accomplished.”

Making it out of the first round of the playoffs was one of those goals. Anything beyond that, Josh Smith said, is up to the Hawks.

“This series is going to be what we make of it,” he said. “We didn’t show up here to be somebody’s punching bag and just go home. We’re like everybody else still playing, we want to win it all, too.”

Horford’s assignment

Hawks center Al Horford never got into a groove against the Heat — and that was before he injured his right ankle in the Hawks’ Game 5 victory.

He averaged 8.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists in six games against the Heat. Horford sat out Game 6 nursing that sprained ankle, time off that Woodson said was crucial to his being able to play 32 minutes in Game 7.

Now he’ll have to deal with Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who at 7-foot-3 presents matchup issues for the 6-10 Horford.

“There’s no question we’re going to have to come up with some ways to deal with the big man,” Woodson said of Ilgauskas. “And Al’s injury limited what he could do against Miami and will keep him from playing at 100 percent now, so it can’t all be on him alone. We’re going to mix and match a little bit and probably go with [Zaza Pachulia] early to make sure we’ve got a body on him.”