Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic will miss tonight’s must-win Game 5 in Atlanta’s first-round series against the Heat, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (via Twitter) that Bogdanovic will sit due to soreness in his right knee. Bogdanovic’s fellow reserve guard Lou Williams will also miss the contest with lower back discomfort, per Spencer. The 35-year-old Williams has been unavailable for every game of the series thus far.
Spencer adds that Hawks center Clint Capela, who missed the first three games of the series with a hyperextended right knee, will be able to play.
Game 5 in Miami represents an opportunity for Atlanta, down 3-1 to the top-seeded Heat, to capitalize on the absence of two Heat starters, as All-Star small forward Jimmy Butler and veteran point guard Kyle Lowry have both been ruled out for the contest. The absence of Bogdanovic, averaging 14.3 PPG, 4.8 RPG and 3.0 APG across four games, will hurt the Hawks’ offensive attack.
The Hawks seem likely to lean further on the offense of wings Kevin Huerter and Delon Wright in the absence of Bogdanovic.
Ouch
I’d LOVE to get a Skylar Mays sighting in the 1st qtr. I’m feeling like Knox has earned himself some pt as well
I thought either the same thing, or more TLC and/or Jalen Johnson and less 2 of their bigs, although not having Bogdanovic makes it slightly harder to play with those lineups. I thought the Reddish trade was dumb, and it hurt them in this matchup. Spo not messing around too much with the rotation, and playing the right guys, as I had said, also helped a lot in the matchup for the Heat. I thought they could go to those small lineups, without Dedmon, and that’s exactly what they did.
I felt like Atlanta absolutely didnt get enough from John Collins or Gallinari, or Huerter really, and I’m not sure if that was just great defense by PJ Tucker, Caleb Martin, and Strus, or they just werent aggressive enough offensively. Bogdanovic also wasnt consistent enough in the series, and I thought those were the most important guys for them in the matchup
Earlier in the season, I felt like Atlanta wasnt using Delon Wright enough/correctly, around their versatile wings and their shooters, and then they traded away from an area that was supposed to be an advantage, and I feel like that’s partly b/c they never figured out how to use that roster to it’s full extent. It bothers me so much when teams dont use their depth correctly and then trade away pieces to get what they already had, and then still dont necessarily have their matchups figured out. They are right there though, so I think its possible the forward progress I thought they’d take this year could come next year. They’re only 1 or 2 doable pieces away
Collins. Bog. Capella. Lou will. Are all back and forth injured.
All teams deal with this of course, we just don’t know to what extent.
I hate that the hawks don’t try to find an all star or borderline to pair with young at sg or sf.
Yes, most options like derozan, McCollum, etc it will create bad defense with young. But so what. At least try something new to get the guy some help.
Huerter, hunter, reddish, etc are not remotely close to consistent.