Atlanta Hawks vs Cleveland Cavaliers: Injury Report

The Hawks travel to Cleveland on Wednesday to take on the Cavaliers, who still have the league's best record

Nov 22, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Atlanta Hawks head coach Quin Snyder directs his team against the Chicago Bulls during the second half at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images / Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Hawks (7-11) are going on the road tomorrow night to face the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team with the best record in the NBA. Cleveland is 17-1 heading into tomorro's game and their only loss has been on the road vs Boston. This is going to be the first of two matchups this week between the two teams and ahead of the game on Wednesday, the Hawks have released their injury report.

Trae Young (right Achilles tendinitis) is questionable for tomorrow's game and Cody Zeller (Not with team) is out. Max Strus (ankle), Dean Wade (ankle), and Caris LeVert (knee) are out for Cleveland tomorrow night.

An @emoryhealthcare injury report for tomorrow’s game at Cleveland:

Trae Young (right Achilles tendinitis): Questionable

Cody Zeller (not with team): Out pic.twitter.com/Ft8Hl8Uams

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 26, 2024

If Young is out tomorrow night, Kobe Bufkin might be in line to start for the Hawks. Young missed a game vs the Celtics earlier this season with the same injury.

The Hawks dropped their third straight game last night in a 129-119 defeat vs the Dallas Mavericks and it was a familiar sight for Hawks fans. Atlanta has been the worst team in the NBA when it comes to opponent three-point attempts and opponent three-point percentage and that was a problem last night. Not only that but seemingly every game, role players have huge nights vs the Hawks or break out of shooting slumps vs the Hawks. Last night, Jaden Hardy (23 points) and Spencer Dinwiddie (22 points) set season highs in points, and Naji Marshall continued his hot streak. While Kyrie Irving scored 30 points (16 in the fourth), that should be expected especially with Dallas missing Luka Doncic and Klay Thompson. The Hawks have done a poor job of guarding the opposing role players and trying to limit them and it is costing them games.

Young was asked about this and gave a very honest answer:

"I mean, that's the plan. I don't think any of us expect teams to come in and feel like they might have a bad night right now. Everybody's shooting well. Everybody's scoring well right now. So it's definitely frustrating because you can see the scouting report and you watch film and guys are not playing the way they're doing when they come here. So we got to force that though. So we can't just think it's going to happen when they come in here. We've got to make it happen and force them to miss more shots. So that's why I know it's on the defense and the coaching staff and the staff to... So it's kind of maybe sometimes forced the other guys to be this way. It's not just them. Us as players, we've got to do a better job out there on the court so everyone has to be better"

The Dallas Mavericks were on the second night of a back-to-back, having gone to overtime in a loss to the Miami Heat last night and they were without Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes, and Dante Exum. This was a great opportunity for the Hawks to get a win at home to end their three-game losing streak, but they could not take advantage of the opportunity. There have been a lot of inexcusable losses this year for the Hawks, but tonight was one of the worst. The Hawks had every reason to win this game, but they did not. What makes the loss even harder to stomach is the fact that Mavs star Kyrie Irving was not shooting well in the game until the 4th quarter. The Mavs role players stepped up more than the Hawks did and it was costly.

Dallas outscored the Hawks 68-52 in the second half and when a team is typically on a back-to-back, they can run out of gas in the second half. That was not true tonight. Irving scored 22 of his 32 points tonight in the second half, with 16 coming in the 4th quarter. Atlanta did as good of a job as you can early on guarding a great scorer like Irving, but he started making shots in the second half. Cleveland is the top-scoring team in the NBA and the top three-point shooting team in the NBA so tomorrow's game is going to be a challenge.

Additional Links:

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