Johnson back in lineup for Friday
Hawks guard Joe Johnson will return to the lineup Friday night after missing the past three games with a sprained right thumb.
Johnson practiced with the team Friday morning at the team’s shootaround at Philips Arena in preparation for the game against Toronto. His thumb was heavily taped.
“It’s alright,” Johnson said of his thumb, which he injured last week in the team’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers. “It’s not where I really want it to be. It’s still sore, but that soreness is going to be there for quite some time. Just trying to help the team reach one of our goals, that’s trying to solidify the third spot.”
With four games remaining, the Hawks are tied with Boston for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference at 49-29. The Hawks need to finish ahead of the Celtics in order to take the third spot, as Boston owns the tiebreaker by virtue of being a division champion.
Without Johnson in the lineup, the Hawks went 1-2, beating Detroit last Saturday to run their home winning streak to 10, but then losing to Charlotte Tuesday and Detroit Wednesday, which ran their road losing streak to six games.
Coach Mike Woodson also said that backup center Jason Collins will miss the remainder of the regular season as a result of a foot injury sustained before Wednesday’s game at Detroit.
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317 comments Add your comment
O'Brien
April 9th, 2010
10:35 pm
Ray
I liked Jarrett Jack too. Younger, cheaper and plays better defense.
Congrats on win 50 hawks. Coming from 13, enjoy this.
Did not see the game. But it looked like al, Josh, Joe and Crawford had good games.
Good to see Boston lose. Lets beat wizard tomorrow and keep third seed
cp
April 9th, 2010
10:36 pm
Well that post didnt go through I guess ill try again later.
drmaryb
April 9th, 2010
10:40 pm
Blue-Ray
(Perfect Picture)
These fake named people – really don’t know who they’re dealing with! My vocabulary spans five languages, but I only have to use basic phonics & gutter language for them to understand.
Don’t mess with me – if you have no heart! LOL! I fight dirty! This is so much FUN! Blogging is soooo. KEWL! I aint scared.
Congratulations! To the Hawks Organization, Owners (Sans BELKIN) he’s a hater too!
Congratulations to Mr. Woodson, the staff & especially the PLAYERS for a milestone WIN!
Play Hard – Have Fun – Just WIN baby! I don’t care if you WIN ugly – Just WIN as many games as possible!
If You Lose to a Better TEAM – Then so be it! Come back next year && Try Try Try Again.
Just Compete Hard & Give yourselves a CHANCE to win – That’s all I ask as a true
FAN!
Good Nite Everybody!
-Mary Ellen B.-
cp
April 9th, 2010
10:41 pm
lol man I give up.The blog monster just aint working with me tonight for some reason.
terrell
April 9th, 2010
10:49 pm
Why does everybody want the 3rd seed and have to face DWade and the refs in the 1st rd?
drmaryb
April 9th, 2010
11:03 pm
Terrell
Third seed gives you home court advantage possibly for two rounds IF certain teams are eliminated. The short term goal is to get to the ECF.
Long term goal is to beat whoever comes out of the west!
To win it all ? You have to beat the BEST to be the BEST!
So, who are you scared of?
rusty
April 9th, 2010
11:12 pm
woody never ceases to amaze me how dumb & pig headed he can be. in a large number of games when jc hasbeen on fire in the second quarter he dont get back into the game until 6 minutes in the 3rd quarter. jc then is usually not on fire. we cant afford to give up leads. if i was jc iwould be pissed you keep playing somebody on fire.
northcyde
April 9th, 2010
11:18 pm
LOL Rusty. Woody put JC back in the game at the same time he put him in the game in the 1st quarter. What did you want Woody to do? Start JC in the 3rd quarter? So it’s Woody’s fault that he didn’t start his 6th man at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, simply because JC was hot?
He’s always the first guy off the bench. It’s not Woody’s fault that he was cold in the 2nd half. That’s just the way basketball is sometimes.
northcyde
April 9th, 2010
11:24 pm
smh @ everything in the world being Woody’s fault.
*****************
from drmaryb:
Terrell
Third seed gives you home court advantage possibly for two rounds IF certain teams are eliminated. The short term goal is to get to the ECF.
Long term goal is to beat whoever comes out of the west!
To win it all ? You have to beat the BEST to be the BEST!
So, who are you scared of?
AMEN !!!!! . . . WHO ARE YOU SCARED OF HAWKS FANS? Keep talking to em “Dr. Quinn”. Some of these fans are scared for some reason.
***************
While the Heat may be red hot ( even though that horrible team that beat us on Wednesday night, beat them too . . in Miami ) . . they are nothing to be scared of. Regardless of that 3 – 1 regular season margin, they STILL have to come into Philips and win one of those first 2 games. They proved that they could do it last year, but we showed mental toughness as well, and won a game in Miami.
Don’t think for one minute that because we lose a bad game, that we can’t turn it around and beat ANYBODY, especially in Philips. This is not a 37 win team. This is a 50+ win team. And Miami or Milwaukee will have to play at a very high level to beat us 4 out of 7 games.
Don’t be surprised folks, if the Hawks out the 1st round in 5 games.
northcyde
April 9th, 2010
11:27 pm
That should read . . . . “Don’t be surprised folks, if the Hawks win the 1st round in 5 games.”
Time to party. Celebrate . . or be mad because we won. LOL . . haters.
JeJe
April 9th, 2010
11:45 pm
“Said Woodson, “I like the direction of where we’re headed, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”"
Is this all he says anymore?
rusty
April 9th, 2010
11:55 pm
turn about fair play or northcyde i really dont know if woody or you make moresense pardon me ithought in all spots yougo withyour hot hand
rusty
April 9th, 2010
11:57 pm
north cyde whats your idea of partying looking at your self in a mirror
kwooden1
April 10th, 2010
12:16 am
northcyde I would still rather play the Bucks in the first round. The refs love Wade!
GO HAWKS!!
drmaryb
April 10th, 2010
12:16 am
Poor Dumb Azz – Rusty,
The NBA is ORGANIZED Basketball. That means You have a Game Plan! (If your 6th Man starts? Who’s the first player off the bench?)
Jamal Crawford is not “Hot-Sauce!”. This is not the AND – 1 League!
I saw a really, really – short yellow school bus today, at first I thought it was the high Pollen Count in GA.
Then, I realized it was ypur dumb azz mamma driving you to school on a YUGO!
Her feet were flying on the pavement, You were screaming , “Yabba Dabba Doo!”. Faster -Mom- Faster, were
Gonna be late. Funny thing was it was on a Sunday & People who go to school on Sunday – well,
They have no CLASS!
Now take your dumb-azz to sleep!
N-Trigue
April 10th, 2010
12:44 am
Mario west does have a purpose on this team he’s just being used wrong…he is a great defender that needs to be used in man to man defensive situations against the hot man on the other team. Go Hawks!
HawksFan11
April 10th, 2010
5:59 pm
Ya know Northcyde, there’s a thin line between loyalty and idol worship. You should take caution not to slip over. It clouds your ability to be objective.