The Atlanta Hawks are falling victim to the injury bug again
Atlanta was without John Collins who was missing his third consecutive contest while dealing with a severe finger injury. The injury reportedly occurred during the loss to the Detroit Pistons and the Hawks went on the win three straight contests after falling to the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks.
But, without Collins available and with Bogdanovic struggling, the rest of the Hawks most effective lineup have been left rather toothless.
This has led to mixing and matching that continued when Danilo Gallinari went down with a bicep contusion in the second quarter. He finished with just five points on 40.0 percent shooting and hit just 1-of-3 threes before exiting.
He had three assists and two boards including this nice find to Okongwu.
Danilo and Big O play the beautiful game. @Gallinari8888 | @BigO21_ pic.twitter.com/WykYAYm1le
— Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) March 16, 2022
Gallo — who missed the last game with a non-COVID illness — wasn’t the only one to get dinged up. Young came away with a thigh contusion that he said was “sore right now”.
He briefly left the game with 2:23 on the clock in the third and the Hawks went up 83-78 on a Lou Williams layup. By the time Young came back with about 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Hawks were down 89-85.
Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot came in for Gallinari and didn’t provide much while Young’s return was a relief with the game in the balance. Now the hope is that there are no lingering effects. Especially with a huge matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on tap for Friday and time remaining to improve upon their standing in the East a little.