Horford: 'Some question' to play Wednesday
ATLANTA — Hawks center Al Horford said Monday that “there’s still some question” whether he will play in Game 2 of Atlanta’s first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday.
Horford dislocated his right pinkie finger in the fourth quarter of the Hawks’ 99-92 win over the Nets in Game 1 on Sunday at Philips Arena. He immediately left the game to get treatment in the Hawks’ locker room and returned to action with just under six minutes remaining in the game, missing both of his shot attempts.
“It’s sore,” Horford said. “I’ve just been doing a lot of treatment on it last night and this morning.”
Coach Mike Budenholzer said the Hawks will gauge Horford’s status over the next 48 hours as he continues to work with coaches and the training staff to manage the discomfort.
“We’ll see how he kind of makes progress today and again tomorrow,” Budenholzer said. “We’ll see what he can do in practice and kind of continue to monitor him and hope for the best.”
Horford thanked his wife for playing nursemaid on Sunday after the game, providing him with ice and Epsom salts during a fairly sleepless night. He said he was encouraged by his work in Monday’s practice and by the improved condition of the finger but said the heavy tape around the finger and hand compromised his shot.
“I’ve been able to deal with pain and soreness and stuff like that, but to me it’s just the taping, the mechanics of it, because the way that I shoot the ball, it kind of disrupts how I grab the ball,” Horford said. “I just have to get used to it. With the coaches today, I worked on shooting and getting a feel for having my fingers taped.”
Meanwhile, Hawks forward Paul Millsap continues to recover from a right shoulder sprain sustained April 4. He missed five games before returning to the lineup Wednesday at Chicago.
Millsap struggled in Game 1, scoring six points on 2-for-11 shooting — well below his season averages — in 33 minutes. He attributed his performance more to the heavy padding he is wearing on his shoulder than any residual pain from the injury.
“Right now it’s because of the pad,” Millsap said. “I’m trying to protect it. It kind of restricts it a little bit.”
Millsap said he and the team’s training staff have experimented with altering the pad, at one point cutting a hole in the cloth for a better range of motion in his shot. He is considering forgoing the pad in Game 2, assuming a greater risk of pain in exchange for better mobility.
Both Horford and Millsap noted that the two days off between Games 1 and 2 was a pleasant happenstance that will buy them a little extra time to heal and adjust to playing with their respective injuries.
“Normally you want to keep [the momentum] going, but we’ve got a few days in between to get some reps up, to get our conditioning up,” Millsap said. “So it’s a good thing for us.”
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