Hawks star John Collins returned from an ankle injury on Sunday to help give his team a boost in a 129-117 victory over the Pacers, Sarah Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes.
Collins, who missed the team’s last nine games, finished with eight points and two rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Atlanta remains without Danilo Gallinari, De’Andre Hunter, Tony Snell, Cam Reddish and Kris Dunn due to injuries, but getting back the 23-year-old Collins will certainly help.
“I felt great,” Collins said postgame. “I feel like I’m back to 100%. Obviously, trying to get the wind back to where it was before I got hurt, but be that as it may, I felt great out there. Just great to be back out with my teammates and happy, happy, happy we got that W tonight, so trying to stay here and continue to progress.”
There’s more from the Southeast today:
- The Magic‘s veterans are looking to keep the team focused as the regular season starts to wind down, Roy Parry of The Orlando Sentinel writes. Orlando currently holds an 18-38 record, the second-worst mark in the East, placing five games behind the No. 10 Bulls. “I feel like myself, T-Ross (Terrence Ross), MCW (Michael Carter-Williams), Bac’ (Dwayne Bacon), Gary (Harris), we can help them — all the young guys — have the right approach every game,” James Ennis said. “I know it’s kind of tough playing these last games. I don’t know if we can make the playoffs or not, but it’s just our jobs to keep everybody engaged and just staying focused on the goals for our team and ourselves.”
- The Wizards have taken on Russell Westbrook‘s personality this season, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington explores. Westbrook is averaging a triple-double on the season — 21.9 points, 10.9 rebounds and 10.8 assists per game — but his primary focus remains helping Washington make the playoffs. “He’s just full of energy, ready to go, always a winning mentality,” teammate Bradley Beal said. “He’s going to play extremely hard every single time he touches the floor. It’s so surreal to be able to see a guy that plays as hard as he does still have that type of energy, still getting himself up and ready to go.”
- Hornets guard Malik Monk isn’t close to returning from injury, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer tweets. Monk has done “very little activity” since suffering a sprained ankle, coach James Borrego said. The 23-year-old is currently enjoying the best season of his young career.
Westbrook stats is better than any MVP
Candidate?
IMO
Look at stats in the nba history
Whoever averages triple double is top 5 player in the nba
22, 11 , 11
Beal is also a superstar
The only reason they gave him the MVP back in 2017 was to make up for not giving it to the Big O, aka Oscar Robertson (not Kelly Olynyk), back in 1962.
James Harden was clearly the better player that season. He was robbed.
You have a lot of horrendous takes, but this takes the cake. How on earth do voters remember what happened with Big O? As for Harden, isn’t this the same dude who choked in Game 6 of the 2017 West Semifinals without Kawhi and got blown out by 35? No heart, no leadership, no chance.
Right, no one who votes for the MVP knows about anything that happened before the year 2000 just like most of the fans here…..
So I’m guessing 30 years from now when voters are doing their 2051 MVP race, they should remember Jordan not winning it in 1997?? Or Hakeem in 1995 over Robinson? Get real. Speaking of robbed in 2017, Astros robbed the Dodgers in the World Series. I noticed how you kept talking so much last fall and stopped talking all of a sudden. I wonder why???
Kawhi Leonard should of won MVP in 2016-17. He played on a team that had a better regular season record than the Rockets on Thunder and he played both offense and defense.
I think it was mainly because we never thought we would see a Triple Double season by a NBA player with the way the game was transitioning towards. I personally don’t have a problem with Russ winning it. MVP means most valuable player whether it’s a 8 seed or 1 seed. You can’t tell me that Nash was more deserving over Kobe in those post Shaq days. Only reason nash won it is because the excitement of offense they brought to the game when offenses were barely averaging 110 PPG.
Hilarious, to make up for Oscar not getting it. Oh, and Harden wasn’t robbed.
Wally, buddy, how did you ruin a perfectly legitimate case for a Harden MVP that year with your idiotic conspiracy theory?)))
Hawks have been playing well. Didn’t realize they’ve been missing that many players. They will be a tough out in playoffs. Hawks, Celtics, Knicks, Heat all in on 4th seed. All 4 teams are playing well now. Nice to see Knicks involved in a race finally.
I predict a Hawks implosion and some heated players…