It wasn’t all good for the Hawks in their 125-121 win over the 7-2 Denver Nuggets. Trae Young was phenomenal, dropping 42 points to go along with his 11 assists. Jabari Parker added 20 points and nine boards. But Kevin Huerter, who was only beginning to gain his footing after missing the entire preseason, left the game in the second half with shoulder soreness and never returned.
The second-year man out of Maryland was recently inserted back into the starting lineup, had a fantastic showing against Portland on Sunday night, and put up 11 first-half points in Denver to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Then, while going up for a shot at the elbow, Huerter was fouled by Nikola Jokic, who hacked him hard on the arm.
Kevin Huerter heads back to the locker room after this foul from Nikola Jokic. pic.twitter.com/i9xxKDmcFy
— FOX Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnFSSE) November 13, 2019
Huerter immediately grabbed his shoulder and was wincing in pain. As he left for the locker room, he was grabbing his lower arm as if it was bothering him everywhere. It did not look encouraging, but the fact that it has been initially ruled shoulder soreness is an encouraging sign.
We will keep you updated once we know the severity of the injury.
Update: The Hawks have announced Kevin Huerter OUT for tomorrow’s game in Phoenix. He did have X-Rays on the shoulder at the arena last night, and they came back negative. Today, Huerter underwent an MRI, and he is returning to Atlanta to assess the injury further. While he’s only been ruled out for tomorrow, It doesn’t seem like he will be playing in the remainder of the west coast road trip. The Hawks play three more games on the other side of the country before returning home to play the Bucks on November 20th.