Jalen Johnson, a small forward for the Atlanta Hawks, hurt his ankle on Monday. It looks like he may miss some time due to injury, which is terrible for his struggling club.
According to a press release sent out by the Hawks on Thursday via its X/Twitter account, Johnson appears to have re-sprained his right ankle during Atlanta’s 136-105 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers. Earlier this month, the injury had previously cost him three games.
The tweet further states that Hawks shooting guard Kobe Bufkin seems to be recovering from a left toe sprain he sustained earlier in the month. In the following seven to ten days, the team plans to reevaluate his progress. With a right high ankle sprain, small forward A.J. Gryphon is sidelined and subject to the same reevaluation timeline. For a team that is just about hanging on to the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference, Johnson’s absence is the most concerning. This could be the play where the third-year forward’s career took a turn for the worse:
As you can see, the injury occurred when the Hawks were behind by 30 points halfway through the fourth quarter. It was an odd move by Atlanta head coach Quin Snyder to play perhaps his best two-way player when the game was completely out of control. In his place, the team is now starting reserve De’Andre Hunter.
The 22-year-old, 6’9″ Johnson has become one of the Hawks’ top players thus far this season. He is a versatile, sharpshooting threat who has started to show signs of late-game takeover ability. With the team, he has had a standout third pro season. In 2021, Atlanta made a No. 20 pick out of Duke University for him. Averaging 16.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.9 blocks, and a.513/.353/.725 shooting split per game, he is quite the player.
The tenth-seeded Hawks, who are currently 30-39, are 4.5 games ahead of the No. 11 Brooklyn Nets and 3.5 games behind the 34-36 Chicago Bulls. The Hawks’ two-game losing skid is greatly outmatched by Brooklyn’s current five-game run. Nonetheless, Atlanta’s postseason prospects become increasingly uncertain the longer it is without Johnson.
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