This is pretty much the worst news a Hawks fan could’ve received. With the team off to one of it’s more promising starts in recent years, the man in the middle, their glue defensively and perhaps their best player, could be done for the season.
Yahoo! Sports’ Marc Spears tweeted just a few minutes ago: “Hawks center Al Horford expected to be out 3-4 months with torn left pectoral muscle, source tells Yahoo! Sports.”
Zach Klein of WSB ABC-TV in Atlanta also tweeted that Horford is “pretty much done for the year.”
Horford left the Hawks’ big loss in Indiana last night after injuring the shoulder in the first quarter. While his numbers were slightly down this year (12.4 points and seven rebounds), the Florida product was the key to Atlanta’s system. Joe Johnson has been awful this year, and Josh Smith – while he is starting to come around – isn’t a consistent anchor on either end. At 7-4, this could spell trouble for the Hawks the rest of the way. They’ll probably make the playoffs because most of the East still kinda sucks. But winning a round? Probably out of the question if he isn’t healthy by then. One thing this injury does mean: more of Ivan Johnson and his Birdman grill.
You know what else this means right? Horford is out so the Hawks become much worse. Dime in turn gets to bash them even more, which allows our readers to get pissed off about our Atlanta hatorade. Fun all around. Except for Horford.
In other NBA news, Kwame Brown is expected to have surgery soon on a torn chest muscle that attaches to the right shoulder. He’ll miss up to three months. The absence of the great Kwame Brown could re-align the NBA’s hierarchy this year.
Is Atlanta still a dangerous playoff team?
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