Don’t look now, but the Atlanta Hawks have won three games in a row and five of their last seven. They have been playing solid defense lately, and in their last two games, they have been missing Zaccharie Risacher and Kristaps Porzingis. Their next test will be tomorrow night in Los Angeles against the Lakers, and ahead of that game, Atlanta has revealed its injury report.

Zaccharie Risacher (left knee, bone contusion), Luke Kennard (neck sprain), and Asa Newell (right quad contusion) are questionable, while Kristaps Porzingis (left Achilles tendinitis) is out. It will be the third straight missed game for Porzingis. Risacher has missed the last two games.

Kennard and Newell were both banged up in last night’s win over the Warriors. Kennard in particular would be a big loss considering how well he is playing. He was 6-9 from three in yesterday’s game and has been shooting the ball very well.

How did McCollum and Kispert’s debuts go?

Last night marked the debut of recent acquisitions CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert for the Hawks, the two players Atlanta acquired in the deal that sent Young to Washington. How did they look in their debuts and what could it mean going forward?

McCollum was the one player that was assuredly going to get playing time for the Hawks. It was not clear though whether or not he was going to start, as he had not come off the bench since the 2014-2015 season. It made sense though that head coach Quin Snyder stuck with Nickeil Alexander-Walker since he had plenty of chemistry with this starting lineup.

The thing that should be encouraging to the Hawks is that they won convincingly on the road against a healthy Warriors team and McCollum did not shoot the ball particularly well.

That is not to say that McCollum was dreadful or anything, counting stats are not the best way to judge games at all, as he finished with a team best +19 in the win last night, but he was 5-14 from the field (including 2-8 in the second half) and was not great on defense, which was a given. Still, he had four assists in 24 minutes and gave the Hawks another ball handler on the court.

I think that McCollum should only improve with the Hawks going forward. He is going to figure out his role with the team and get used to playing with his new teammates. Not only that, but the Hawks were missing Zaccharie Risacher and Kristaps Porzingis. Those two should make McCollum’s life easier as well and I look forward to seeing how he continues to evolve.

McCollum had a role that was fairly easy to define, but Kispert’s was less clear.

Kispert played close to 14 minutes for the Hawks and was 0-4 from the field, including 0-3 from three.

The biggest question that I have going forward is how many minutes does Kispert see when Risacher returns? Kispert’s biggest asset is his three point shooting, but the Hawks are going to prioritize Risacher’s development (even if he does not close games). Vit Krejci has been one of the Hawks best shooters this season and Luke Kennard is playing his best basketball of the season, as evidenced by his 6-9 shooting day from three.

It was an interesting debut for Kispert and he will be a player to keep an eye on when Risacher does indeed return. He adds shooting to the Hawks and you can never have enough of that.

More Atlanta Hawks News:

Over at MLB.com, Mark Bowman discussed a few interesting news nuggets among many offseason topics. For one, he once again mentioned that Sean Murphy likely will miss the start of the 2026, which could make backup catcher a need for the Braves in the early part of the season. The hope is that once Murphy does return, he will be closer to full health than he has been in years. But the time frame of when that will occur is still to be determined.

Bowman also mentioned that Brandon Gaudin and CJ Nitkowski should be back as the broadcast duo for the Braves even though the home of the Braves TV Broadcast is still to be determined. That is definitely positive news as Gaudin and Nitkowski are highly thought of in Braves County.