Updated Injury Report Heading Into Tonight's Game Versus Knicks

The Hawks have just released their final injury report for tonight's game against the Knicks and it is a more extensive one than they've seen in a while.

Trae Young (right Achilles tendinitis) is avaliable while Kobe Bufkin (right shoulder surgery) and
Jalen Johnson (left shoulder surgery) remain out. Vit Krejci (lower back contusion) and Larry Nance Jr. (right knee injury) have both been ruled out of tonight's game.

While the absence of Krejci and Nance was expected to happen, it makes even more sense in light of the most recent report about their injuries.

"Vit Krejci left Monday night’s game due to a lower back contusion. Further evaluation and imaging at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex confirmed a non-displaced lumbar fracture. He will be re-evaluated in three to four weeks, and an update will be provided at that time."

"Larry Nance Jr. left Monday night’s game with a right knee injury. Further evaluation and imaging at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex revealed a non-displaced fracture of his right medial femoral condyle. He will be re-evaluated in approximately six weeks, and an update will be provided at that time."

The Knicks are going to be a tough opponent to best, especially when short-handed, but these are the types of games the Hawks are going to have to win if they want to be a meaningful part of the postseason picture. By winning this game, they can head into the All-Star break with a realistic shot of going on a run over the last two months of the season and punching their postseason ticket.

Trae Young is coming off one of his quieter offensive games. Orlando's defense did an excellent job on Young, limiting him to 19 points on 6-17 shooting. He went 1-8 from three, but there is a real opportunity for a bounce-back against a New York team that has given up the best percentage from deep in the NBA. Young's gone over 23 points in each of his last three games against the Knicks and always comes into this matchup with something to prove. It'd be hard to expect his shooting woes to continue.

One interesting component of this matchup is at the center spot. Karl-Anthony Towns is fresh off a dominant 40 pt, 12 rebound game against the Pacers. This is going to be a difficult matchup for Atlanta to handle, especially with Jalen Johnson out.

Although Brunson had 34 in his last game against the Knicks, Dyson Daniels is going to make it a challenge for him to get to his spots. Daniels fouled out of the last game against New York and he's been playing some of his best basketball on both ends of the court. In his last five games, he's averaging 14.6 points on 47.6/50/69.7% shooting splits to go with 6.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.6 steals. Although he isn't taking a lot of threes, he's choosing his spots well and showing a lot of confidence when he does shoot them. He's struggled on offense against the Knicks, shooting 16.7% from deep and only scoring 8.3 points. If he can turn that trend around, it should be massive for Atlanta's chances of winning this one.

Another Hawk whose had an excellent stretch of games recently is Zaccharie Risacher. Our very own Jackson Caudell wrote about Risacher's improvements recently and had this to say:

"The past six games have been different for Risacher. He scored 30 points on 11-14 shooting in a game vs the Cavs, scored 17 points in a loss vs Indiana, 17 in a win over Detoit, 13 in a win over Milwaukee, and last night he had 18 points in a win over the Wizards. In five of the last six games, Risacher has shot 79%, 55%, 56%, 60%, and 67% from the field. In the month of February, Risacher so far has averaged 14.2 PPG on 56% shooting from the floor and 38% from three."

It wasn't a banner game for him against the Magic as he only scored 11 points, but he looked excellent as a playmaker. He dished out four assists and went 1-2 from deep. His three-point shot has finally started to match up to his projection and it'll be interesting to see if he can keep that going against the Knicks. Risacher had the best game of his young career against the Knicks earlier this year, scoring 33 points in a comeback 121-116 win.

From a larger perspective, Atlanta's bench has been critical to their success. Although it's hard to expect the Hawks to eclipse 54 bench points, the Knicks do not have a ton of depth. Miles McBride, Landry Shamet and Cam Payne had excellent games off the bench for New York in their win over the Pacers. It's going to be up to Atlanta's second unit to slow New York's reserves down and keep them from losing the non-Trae Young minutes by an egregious amount.

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