Injury report for tomorrow’s NBA Cup semifinal game

After defeating the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday, the Atlanta Hawks face the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Cup semifinals tomorrow, the Hawks’ biggest game yet. Not only did they beat the Knicks on Wednesday, but they have won seven of their last eight games and are playing really well at this point in the season.

Ahead of tomorrow’s game, the Hawks officially released their injury report. Bogdan Bogdanovic (left quad contusion), De’Andre Hunter (treatment for a right knee injury) and Trae Young (right Achilles tendonitis) are all probable, while Jalen Johnson (right ankle sprain) is questionable.

Bill Simmons was someone who liked the Hawks all season, and he also praised the team in his recent podcast episode:

“Atlanta, a team I really liked before the season. You probably remember the Over/Under group, House and I went all-in on their over. They upset the Knicks last night and it wasn’t even a surprise, I thought they were being nice. “I dominated them in the second half and I really wonder if this was a playoff series, would I be big?” Would be scared if I were the Knicks because they don’t really have a way to control Trae Young’s dribbling/dribble penetration whatever they do. I call it some sort of matchup these days against the Knicks wings, which Atlanta wings, and I think this is a dangerous matchup for them, which I like and I wonder if they have a real chance of becoming this year’s Pacers.

The key for them is two things. One of them is three-point shooting. (Dyson) Daniels is only at 31%, Risacher is at 28%, Trae is at 31%, which is bad. (De’Andre) Hunter is too efficient, he’s at 45%. Can these wings start hitting more threes?”

Simmons also shared his thoughts on what this could mean for Trae Young:

“I think this is it. I think we’ve reached the moment of “let’s sort this out once and for all” with Trae, almost like a political candidate for an election. He’s been feeding off this conference finals appearance thing for a few years now. I think we all know it happened because Embiid was totally screwed up and there were a few awkward plays and Ben Simmons basically had a basketball nervous breakdown and this year, for whatever reason, has completely lost, 21 and 12 assists A game is solid. 38% shooting, 31% from three, which doesn’t stop him from launching 29-footers. The ball losses are at 4.6, the highest they have ever been. And despite all that, this is the perfect team for him. He has wings everywhere, he has a lot of people protecting him on defense.

Daniels, whoever the other team’s lead guard is, you saw that in the Knicks’ game against Brunson. Daniels can guard any team’s point guard, the small guard, whoever it is. (Donovan) Mitchell, (Darius) Garland, name a man, you can put Daniels on him. He can guard anyone in the league who is under 6 feet tall. And Jalen Johnson, you know, if you rank the wings, Jalen Johnson, Daniels, Anunoby and Bridges, I think I would take Johnson over the other three, and Daniels will be a first-team All-NBA defenseman. So the perfect place for Trae. He’s got rebounders and shot blockers, he’s got lob guys, he’s got great interchangeable shooters everywhere.

You can listen to the entire episode here.

Young has taken a different approach to his game, becoming more of a facilitator than a scorer. He leads the league in assists while his goal numbers are down, which benefits the team in a big way. Atlanta sits in 7th place in the Eastern Conference at 14-12, but is just 2.5 games out of third place. Before the game, ESPN analyst and former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins, a long-time fan of Young’s, said:

“If you think about the guys who have the most 40-point games at Madison Square Garden, it’s Jordan, Kobe, Bernard King and Trae Young. Here’s the thing: Trae Young is the most disrespected star since Carmelo Anthony. Both were one and accomplished phenomena, both took their franchises to the conference finals and yet they were disrespected and the fans were ungrateful for what they had done, for what Carmelo had done and what Trae Young is now What Trae Young is doing what he’s doing right now, even if his shot distribution has dropped, but his playmaking is at an all-world MVP level, like Steve Nash and Jason Kidd.

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