The Hawks turned to Kris Humphries to start at center against the Nuggets Friday with Dwight Howard out for a third straight game with back tightness.
Humphries will join the regular lineup of Dennis Schroder, Kent Bazemore, Thabo Sefolosha and Paul Millsap. Kyle Korver will come off the bench after starting the previous two games.
“We probably need to get another guy into the mix,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Kris has helped us when he’s played. We’ve been running a little bit on a short rotation. Just give Kris a chance to give us some good quality minutes.”
Millsap started at center the past two games. It worked in a win over the Thunder on Monday. It did not work in a loss to the Timberwolves on Wednesday as the Hawks quickly inserted Mike Muscala into the lineup after falling behind by 10 points. Muscala started the second half at center as the Hawks went away from a small lineup.
Even with Howard and Tiago Splitter, who has not played with season, out of the lineup, Humphries has played sparingly this season. He appeared in 20 games and averaged 10.3 minutes. He did not play in four of the past five game and his one appearance was a 45-second stint against the Raptors.
Budenholzer said the move to Humphries was also a matchup concern against the Nuggets.
“The thing we talked about for both those (previous) game is that each night there are matchups and different situations that lend themselves to different things,” Budenholzer said. “We are experimenting a little bit ourselves. Part of it is getting another guy, another body, somebody who is active and athletic and physical. I think we need that tonight.”
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