Where There's a Will(iams)...
After a frustrating start, Marvin Williams is getting his game back.
By Jon Cooper

The 2006-07 season was supposed to be the one in which Marvin Williams got his big break.

Instead, it's been one in which he got a little one — a non-displaced fracture of the third metacarpal of his left hand, to be specific — that cost him the first 17 games of the year and threw his sophomore season into disarray.

"I was in practice trying to steal the ball and just ended up breaking my hand," Williams recalled of the seemingly innocent Oct. 26 incident that kept him off the court until Dec. 8. "Speedy [Claxton] did the same thing, same spot. It was tough."

It grew tougher and tougher as the games mounted.

"Being patient was the hardest thing," said Williams. "Sometimes I kind of rushed myself but the trainers were always there to tell me 'You have to slow down. You have to slow down.'"

Once the bone healed, Williams faced a different problem. His spirit was willing to go, but getting back into basketball shape was not as easy. He barely broke the 30-minute mark in his first games back, beginning on Dec. 8, at the Staples Center against the Los Angeles Lakers. In his first two games he managed 25 and 20 minutes and only nine and three points.

"When you go through an injury the first thing you lose is your conditioning," said Hawks Head Coach Mike Woodson. "I got on him the other day about asking to come out of the ball game when he's tired. But he's starting to shape up a little bit. He's doing some things that we expected him to do."

That means getting back to the form that made him MVP of the Rocky Mountain Revue during the summer, during which he averaged a Revue-best 23.2 points, on .549 shooting, with 5.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists].

Williams finished 2006 by hitting for double figures in seven of the last 10 games, and has averaged 32.3 minutes a game since his return.

Included in those efforts were season-high games of 23 points Dec. 13 at New York, when he hit a career-best 13 free throws, and Dec. 23 at Philips Arena against Chicago, when he played a career-best 43 minutes, while tying career highs with nine field goals, two three-point field goals and two blocked shots.

"My legs are finally back under me, which is the biggest thing, said Williams with a smile. "I feel like I'm getting better, to full strength. My wind is coming back. So I feel good."

The Hawks hope that Williams' getting better has a similar effect on the offense. Woodson expects to see big things from Williams.

"Offensively he's gifted enough that he'll feel his way through a game and score points," said Woodson. "But he's still somewhat still second-guessing himself because he's just not sure yet. That eventually will come. For the most part I'm pleased with his progress. We're going to need him more than ever now that Josh Smith is going to be out for about another four weeks. So he's really going to have to step up and not only just play minutes but solid minutes for us."

The injury to Smith, who finally relented to having hernia surgery, assures that the Hawks' projected starting unit of Williams, Smith, Zaza Pachulia, Joe Johnson and Speedy Claxton — which has played three games this season — will not play together again until February at the earliest. It's a frustrating situation for the team and a different kind of frustration for Williams, who is no longer on the outside looking in.

"We're never at full strength," sighed Williams. "I go down then I come back then Joe goes down and when he comes back, Josh Childress goes down, and T-Lue goes down. We've never been at full strength, especially with all of our main guys so it's tough when that happens but we're holding together."

"It's tough from a coaching standpoint because you build your team to rely on the Marvins and the Childresses and the Smiths, they're a big part of what we do," said Woodson. "So when they're not out there, you're reaching, trying to figure out who else can step up and make plays.

"Injuries are a part of the game," he added. "We have been shorthanded this year but we're still fighting as a team. We are still in the hunt, believe it or not, but healthy bodies would help our basketball team. The fact that Marvin is back healthy, brings some light to what we're trying to do."

Jon Cooper is a freelance writer based in Atlanta