Atlanta Hawks: Injuries Pile Up
As the Atlanta Hawks get set to take on the Denver Nuggets, they’ll do so without Dwight Howard and Tiago Splitter. Will they also be without Tim Hardaway Jr.?
Injuries are a part of professional sports. That’s never going to change. Unless the athletes eventually become robots, but I’ve been talking about robots too much lately, so it’s best not to get into that.
The injury bug bites everyone, as the Atlanta Hawks are learning this season (and this week). Backup center Tiago Splitter has been out for the entire season. The Brazilian has had to deal with a calf injury, hip surgery, and a hamstring strain, over the last few seasons.
The injuries linger, and he can never get healthy. I don’t imagine the Hawks are counting on any production from Splitter this season, as disappointing as that might be.
The same can’t be said for Dwight Howard. Atlanta is expecting plenty of production from him this season. They’ve gotten a fair amount already. In 26 games, Howard is averaging 14.2 points and 13 rebounds per game on 63 percent shooting. Soaring Down South’s Tyler Sellers says that Howard should be an All-Star for his efforts.
Howard hasn’t seen the court this week. After playing 35 minutes on Dec. 17 against the Charlotte Hornets, Howard sat out Monday’s victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder due to back tightness.
Two days later, after being listed as a “game-time decision”, Howard again was out of the lineup. The Hawks would lost that game, after the Minnesota Timberwovles dominated the rebounding battle.
Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported that Howard will miss his third straight game Friday, as the Hawks get set to take on the Denver Nuggets. On Wednesday, Howard told reporters that things were improving.
“It’s a lot better than it was a couple days ago,” Howard said Wednesday morning. “It continues to get better. We’ll see how it feels tonight and go from there.”
It appears that it has not improved quite as he’d hoped. It’s difficult to call back tightness an injury, but if it’s keeping Howard out of action it has to be taken seriously.
Howard’s absence has led to Mike Budenholzer starting a small-ball lineup with Paul Millsap at center and Thabo Sefolosha at power forward. The results have been mixed.
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The Hawks aren’t just missing Howard and Splitter. They might be missing another rotation player against the Nuggets. After a single minute of game-action Wednesday against the Timberwolves, Tim Hardaway Jr. had to exit with an injured right groin. He would not return to that game, and had a noticeable limp when he returned to the sideline.
Hardaway has had somewhat of a breakout season, after struggling to even get into the rotation in 2015-16. Hardaway is averaging 11.3 points per game on 43.9 percent shooting and 30.9 percent from outside. His three-point shooting has fallen off significantly, but his scoring off the bench still remains valuable to Atlanta.
The Hawks have listed Hardaway as questionable for Friday night’s game in Denver. In his absence, the Hawks have a few different options with the rotation.
If they choose to play Sefolosha and Kyle Korver exclusively on the perimeter, then they can give Hardaway’s minutes to Mike Scott. Or, they could even give his minutes to some combination of Scott and Taurean Prince. Mike Budenholzer’s role as broken puzzle assembler will continue for another day, unless Hardaway proves healthy enough to play.
When it rains it pours. The Hawks don’t need these injuries right now. They are still trying to find their identity as a team. They can’t do that if they aren’t whole.
Friday’s game at Denver is their final game before Christmas. Hawks fans are hoping to see a 15-15 record, a healthy team, and an ugly Christmas sweater under their trees.