The Atlanta Hawks are back at home after sweeping their four-game West Coast road trip. As their reward, they get to face the Detroit Pistons, who may be playing some of the best basketball in the Eastern Conference to start the season. It should be a good matchup between two surging teams, but the Hawks have several players who are listed as questionable on the injury report.
Zaccharie Risacher, Kristaps Porzingis, Onyeka Okongwu, Jacob Toppin, N'Faly Dante, Eli John Ndiaye, and Nikola Djurisic are all listed as questionable, but it's only a few players to keep in mind here. Dante, Ndiaye, and Djurisic will be on assignment for the G-League, so they'll most likely not be playing for the Hawks. The Hawks recently recalled Toppin, so there is a chance that he suits up, if he needs to.
Risacher suffered a left hip contusion against the Phoenix Suns, where he took a scary fall after a dunk. He stayed on the floor for some time, but was able to get up and walk to the locker room on his own. As for Porzingis, he has missed the past two games for the Hawks, with the latest reason being because of right knee soreness.
Okongwu has started in the place of Porzingis for those two games and has played well, but he's dealing with a right knee contusion.
If the Hawks are missing both Porzingis and Okongwu, it may be a tough night for the frontcourt against Jalen Duren, who just had 31 points on 12-of-13 shooting and added 15 rebounds when he faced the Indiana Pacers. One thing the Hawks have been good at during this stretch they're in is using their depth as an advantage, and players such as Asa Newell and Mouhamed Gueye will have to step up.
If Risacher doesn't play, that will give Toppin the chance to play.
