Hawks center Jock Landale is “progressing in his rehabilitation” from a high right ankle sprain, the team announced today in a press release. However, Landale’s return isn’t imminent. According to the Hawks, the big man will be reevaluated in approximately two weeks.
Based on that timeline, there’s a chance that Landale’s season is over, since there’s no guarantee Atlanta’s first-round series vs. New York will still be going in two weeks. Game 6 of the series is tentatively scheduled for April 30, two weeks from Thursday, with Game 7 to be played on May 2, if necessary.
Landale injured his ankle in an April 1 game against Orlando. Magic center Goga Bitadze pulled Landale down by his shoulder as he took the ball up for a scoring chance at the basket, resulting in the Atlanta center hitting the floor and landing awkwardly (YouTube link). The hard foul sparked an immediate on-court skirmish between the two Southeast rivals, and Hawks head coach Quin Snyder later referred to Bitadze’s play as “dirty,” expressing frustration that the NBA didn’t take it more seriously.
With Landale still unavailable, the Hawks will enter their series against the Knicks with Mouhamed Gueye and late-season addition Tony Bradley as their backup options at the five behind starter Onyeka Okongwu, notes Brad Rowland of Locked on Hawks (Twitter link).
It’s not an ideal situation for Atlanta, given how well Landale had performed after being acquired from Utah in trade-deadline deal. The journeyman center averaged 9.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 19.4 minutes per game across 23 outings for the Hawks, knocking down 51.6% of his shots from the floor, including 39.1% of his three-point tries.
This sucks. Goga should have been punished for injuring Jock intentionally. Jock will now be out for at least 4 weeks total.
Insane that intentionally injuring an opposing player doesn’t merit even a one game suspension