Trae Young out at least month in massive Hawks injury blow

The Hawks will be without their biggest star for at least a month. 

Trae Young suffered a ligament tear in his left pinkie finger and will undergo surgery on Tuesday to repair the injury, the team announced Sunday afternoon. 

The injury occurred during a 123-121 loss to the Raptors on Friday and an MRI the following day revealed that Young had a tear of the radial collateral ligament. 

The 25-year-old will be re-evaluated in four weeks. 

It would be a bit of an understatement to say that the news was a blow for Atlanta, which sits in 10th in the Eastern Conference and has dropped three straight games. 

The Hawks do still have a three-game lead over the Nets for the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, which means there isn’t too much room for error for Atlanta. 

Young, who earned his third All-Star nod this season, is averaging a team-high 26.4 points and 10.8 assists per game.

He is also leading the NBA in total assists with 553.

It’s not quite clear when the injury to Young occurred since he played 35 minutes on Friday, but he was held to just 11 points on 4 of 13 shooting. 

Still, the Hawks rely on Young’s ability to facilitate a majority of their offense and without him on the court, they’ll likely turn those responsibilities over to Dejounte Murray. 

Murray’s name had, of course, been the topic of many trade rumors earlier this month right up until the trade deadline when ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that he would not be dealt. 

The Hawks are already dealing with a different injury to forward Onyeka Okongwu, who suffered a sprain in his left big toe and is in a walking boot. 

The team said that he would be re-evaluated in two weeks. 

Atlanta is down to its final 25 games after Sunday night’s contest against the Magic at State Farm Arena.