John Collins has injured his finger during the Hawks’ loss to the Detroit Pistons. The Atlanta Hawks forward could miss 4-6 weeks, according to Chris Kirschner of the Athletic.
The Hawks’ beat writer noted that the best-case scenario for Collins is to be sidelined for 2-3 weeks. That’s definitely bad news for the emerging Atlanta, after winning four of their last six games.
This season, Collins was bothered by several injury issues, especially in the past few weeks. He tried to play through them, but his shooting was off, like the time he shot 0-of-9 from the field against the Bucks last week.
Through 54 games for the 33-34 Hawks, the 6-foot-9 big man is averaging 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per contest with shooting splits of 52/36/79.
The Wake Forest product dealt with a foot injury through the All-Star break that made him miss three games. He returned on 5th of March in the 117-114 win against Washington and played four games before the team ruled him out again for the contest vs Indiana on Sunday.
The Hawks sit 10th in the Eastern Conference behind the ninth-seeded Hornets, who sport a 32-34 record.
An extended absence for the Hawks’ second-leading scorer in Collins could spell trouble for the Hawks’ play-in chances.
Trae Young needed to score 47 points in a close-fought 131-128 victory vs the lottery bound Pacers last night.
Onyeka Okongwu will probably receive more minutes to cover for the 7.8 rebounds the Hawks will miss with Collins out.
Moreover, Danilo Gallinari will need to score more as the power forward, while DeAndre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic will have to do the same from their side.
Atlanta will face the Hornets on Wednesday in a very important matchup for their postseason future with 15 games remaining for the end of the regular season.
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