Jalen Johnson, Kristaps Porzingis Come Off Atlanta's Newest Injury Report Ahead of Matchup vs Minnesota

The Atlanta Hawks have been dealing with a slew of injuries, but they have some good news on their latest injury report ahead of tomorrow's game vs Minnesota.

After missing over two weeks with an illness, Kristaps Porzingis was not listed on the injury report tonight, signaling a return to play. After missing last night's game vs the Thunder with an illness, Jalen Johnson was not listed on the injury report either. That will be huge for a Hawks team that has lost seven in a row and 11 of their last 13 games.

One player who did appear on the injury report was Trae Young, who is questionable with a right quad contusion. Young also missed last night's game in Oklahoma City.

An @emoryhealthcare injury report for tomorrow’s game vs. Minnesota:

Trae Young (right quad contusion): Questionable

N’Faly Dante (right knee, torn ACL): Out pic.twitter.com/ESTc407XTA
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) December 30, 2025

If Young does not play, expect another start for Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

One thing to monitor tomorrow is whether or not Porzingis comes off the bench. In the last game that he played in, Porzingis came off the bench against the Denver Nuggets. Will that be the case tomorrow against Minnesota?

The Hawks are going to need both of these players in a massive way. Minnesota is a team with a lot of capable bigs, from Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, and Naz Reid and the Hawks need both Porzingis and Johnson to help deal with their size inside.

Our own Rohan Raman detailed the Hawks big rebounding problem:

"In the modern NBA, rebounding is an especially important trait for a team to have. The 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder and the 2022-23 Denver Nuggets are the only championship teams to not finish as a top-10 rebounding team since the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors. That didn't matter in the playoffs because Oklahoma City had a devestatingly effective double-big lineup with Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein to fight for rebounds. Denver was able to work past that worrying indicator because they have two great rebounders at their position in their frontcourt - Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic. Even so, both teams still finished in the top half of the playoff bracket for rebounds per game. It's almost impossible for dreadful rebounding teams to win a championship in the current iteration of the NBA. Unfortunately, the Hawks are currently a dreadful rebounding team.

To be clear, this is an aberration for Atlanta. Despite heavily relying on a 6'1 point guard on the floor who offers practically nothing as a rebounder, the Hawks have actually been a top-15 rebounding team for most of Trae Young's career. A season-by-season breakdown shows in five of the seven seasons where Young was at the helm, the Hawks finished as an average or above-average rebounding team.

2018-19 season: 12th in rebounds (4th in OREB, 18th in DREB)

2019-20 season: 22nd in rebounds (19th in OREB, 23rd in DREB)

2020-21 season: 5th in rebounds (7th in OREB, 10th in DREB)

2021-22 season: 20th in rebounds (17th in OREB, 17th in DREB)

2022-23 season: 10th in rebounds (9th in OREB, 12th in DREB)

2023-24 season: 6th in rebounds (3rd in OREB, 22nd in DREB)

2024-25 season: 14th in rebounds (9th in OREB, 23rd in DREB)

So far, this season has been their worst rebounding season in the entirety of the Trae Young era. They are currently 25th in total rebounds while being 27th in OREB and 21st in DREB. Unsurprisingly, they don't get a lot of second chance points and they're 23rd in that area. For further elaboration, they're one of three teams that rank 20th or worse in both OREB% and DREB%. The other two teams are the Sacramento Kings and the Washington Wizards - that's not great company to be in right now."

Arguably no team in the league needs a win more than Atlanta and having both Johnson and Porzingis back is going to help them in their matchup with the Timberwolves tomorrow.

More Atlanta Hawks News: