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Brad Rowland: Jalen Johnson (left shoulder inflammation) has been downgraded to questionable for tonight’s game.
Anthony Slater: Kristaps Porzingis is out tonight in Atlanta with lower back tightness. Jonathan Kuminga is off the injury report and cleared to face the Warriors. Questionable: Draymond Green, De’Anthony Melton, Gary Payton II, Quinten Post.
Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis left Friday night's road loss in Detroit with lower back spasms and said postgame he will "probably" miss Saturday night's reunion game in Atlanta against a Hawks team that traded him in February. "We'll see," Porzingis said. "Maybe it loosens up tomorrow. Who knows? But right now it's pretty stiff." Porzingis said he first felt his back tightening up in the first quarter, but the problem worsened late in the second quarter after back-to-back plays bumping with Pistons big man Jalen Duren.
Marc J Spears: Knicks head coach Mike Brown reached 500 wins with a victory at Brooklyn tonight and became the 40th coach in NBA history to reach that mark. Hawks head coach Quin Snyder also has 496 career coaching wins.
“I want to talk about CJ McCollum,” Iguodala said. “He’s been getting a lot of flack for the second apron and I always ask guys, what would you want CJ to do differently? Because we know what lockouts are like, and we don’t want guys to lose money. We reach out to guys all the time, and what do guys say? I’m busy, I don’t want no extra work.” That frustration then built as Iguodala turned to younger voices. “When I talk to other guys, like we need you at these meetings. ‘I want to play Call Of Duty, I want to go out.’ Mikal… that’s my young boy. I’m like, ‘Mikal dog, if you’re one of the smart players in the league, him too (Josh Hart), we need y’all.’”
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The partnership reached its end with a trade demand, which led to the Warriors sending Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks just before last month’s trade deadline in exchange for Kristaps Porziņģis. When asked about what goes through his mind the most in advance of Saturday’s reunion game against Kuminga in Atlanta, Kerr answered through the lens of a coach trying to navigate his own team through a losing skid at the end of a long season. “To be honest,” Kerr told The Athletic with a chuckle, “I haven’t given it much thought because we’re trying to win a damn game. But I can tell you that everybody likes JK. Everybody on our team wants the best for him. I want the best for him.”
“I think the trade was a good one,” Kerr said. “Both guys are very talented. I think everything in the NBA is circumstantial. I think players need the right set of circumstances to thrive. And the trade made sense because these were not the right circumstances for JK. And you can see right away that Kristaps has a very clear role on this team, something we’ve needed for years. And we’re looking forward to getting him out there with Steph. And so in the end, hopefully it’s a trade that works for both guys and both teams.”
Then there's the side of Kuminga that craved a change of scenery. He couldn't help but feel the rush when Saleh told him over the phone, soon after the trade was agreed, that the Hawks were chasing wins — now — and eager to get him to Atlanta and unlock his natural game. “His mindset … JK's just like a dog ready to be unleashed,” Hawks All-Star forward Jalen Johnson told me. “You can tell, just how he's working out, how he's approaching his days. He’s ready to go. He's ready to do what it takes to win. And show the rest of the world that.”
Kuminga is also still managing that knee injury sustained in Dallas in late January, but he's accepted a bench role here. He's been making a good impression since his very first day as a Hawk, when Kuminga entered the front office area of the team's practice facility upon arrival to town and shook every hand he saw to introduce himself. “I want to be a winner as much as I can, as bad as I can,” Kuminga told me. “I want to compete. Certain things, it's life. You're gonna get thrown a lot of things. You gotta believe.”
There is mutual interest, league sources say, for the Hawks to potentially decline their 2026-27 team option on Kuminga valued at $24.3 million in order for the sides to hash out a longer-term agreement. “That's the goal,” Kuminga said of helping the Hawks build a lasting playoff contender. “That's what we're trying to do here, what we're trying to stamp here as a group. We talk about it every day. It starts now. We're not waiting until next year.”
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Jeff Stotts: Cade Cunningham Injury Update: A pneumothorax (collapsed lung) is much more common in contact sports like the NFL but there have been several cases in the NBA including Gerald Wallace, CJ McCollum (2x), & Terrence Jones. Average time lost? 26 days (~10.8 games)
Tim Bontemps: CJ McCollum has dealt with this a couple times in the past, missing three weeks in 2023 and six weeks in 2021. Three weeks from today would be heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Six weeks from today would be near the end of the first round of the playoffs.
Kevin O'Connor: Cade Cunningham's collapsed lung could keep him sidelined for the rest of the regular season, but not the playoffs, if past recovery timelines are any indication: CJ McCollum, 2023: Missed 12 games over 3.5 weeks CJ McCollum, 2021: 18 games, 6 weeks Terrence Jones, 2015: 6 games, 2 weeks Gerald Wallace, 2009: 7 games, 3 weeks Average of 10.8 games over 3.6 weeks. The Pistons have 14 games remaining with one month until the playoffs. Cade has played only 61 games. He may lose out on MVP and All-NBA eligibility if he doesn't return sooner.