Hawks Injury Report is Littered With Contributors Ahead of Thursday Game vs Portland

The Hawks might be very short handed once again when they face the Blazers on Thursday

Jan 7, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Luke Kennard (3) shown warming up on the court prior to the game against the New Orleans Pelicans at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Hawks had their three-game winning streak snapped last night in a blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and one of the reasons for that was how shorthanded they were. Atlanta only had 10 players available for the game and tomorrow night against Portland is not looking all that promising.

Ahead of tomorrow's game against the Blazers, the Hawks are listing Mouhamed Gueye (right lateral ankle sprain) and Luke Kennard (neck sprain) as questionable while Kristaps Porzingis (left Achilles tendinitis) and Zaccharie Risacher (left knee, bone contusion) are going to be out once again. Kennard missed last night's game vs the Lakers while Risacher and Porzingis are set to miss their fourth straight game.

An @emoryhealthcare injury report for tomorrow’s game at Portland:

Mouhamed Gueye (right lateral ankle sprain): Questionable
Luke Kennard (neck sprain): Questionable
                                                         
N’Faly Dante (right knee, torn ACL): Out
Kristaps… pic.twitter.com/dk9Fw65cpW

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) January 15, 2026

If Gueye is out, the Hawks are going to be very limited in the front court and rookie Asa Newell would see some major minutes. If Kennard is out again, Corey Kispert should see the same amount of playing time as he did last night. With Risacher out again, Vit Krejci might be in the starting lineup.

Bad loss

Jan 13, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) drives to the basket during the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Hawks at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

It was a night to forget for Atlanta against the Lakers.

The Lakers outscored the Hawks 44-30 in the second quarter and blew the game open in the first half. Los Angeles, who came into the game 30th in three-point percentage, was 6-9 from deep, including a 3-3 mark from Luka Doncic.

On the other end, the Hawks were 2-8 from three and could not find any offensive rhythm outside of CJ McCollum, who had 11 points in the quarter. After a stellar defensive performance against the Warriors, the Hawks came out in the worst way imaginable against the Lakers, allowing them to score 81 points in the first half, the most they had scored in a half all year up to this point.

I am not going to say that the Hawks offense was great in this game, but the defense was very disappointing. The Lakers were playing on the second night of a back-to-back (James first of the year), Austin Reaves was still out, and the Lakers are not one of the NBA's best three point shooting teams.

It did not matter though as the Lakers ended up shooting 58% from the field and 19-34 from three. Jake LaRavia, Gabe Vincent, and Luka Doncic combined for 11 of those threes.

The Hawks defense had been playing well, but this was certainly a step back.

In a game you lose by 25 points, it is hard to say that many players played well, but Johnson and Okongwu did not play well tonight.

Okongwu struggled with foul trouble and was just 3-8 from the field, scoring seven points, grabbing eight rebounds, and handing out four assists.

Johnson finished with 13 points, but shot 5-17 from the field and missed several shots at the rim. He had little to no impact on the game and that can't happen in games like this if you are the team's best player.

Atlanta wraps up their road trip on Thursday night against Portland.