Paul Millsap walked gingerly through the Hawks’ locker room – the result of a sprained left ankle.
The Hawks power forward suffered the injury in the second quarter of Thursday’s 111-92 loss to the Pacers. Neither coach Mike Budenholzer nor Millsap could say after the game whether the All-Star would miss any games with the injury.
“I’ve seen better days,” Millsap told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the loss.
Millsap was asked whether he thought the injury would cost him games.
“I don’t like to jump too far ahead,” he said. “I’ll see how it feels tomorrow.”
The Hawks next play at the Heat Sunday.
Millsap called a timeout and pulled himself from the game with 2:47 remaining in the second quarter after he got a rebound. However, he said the injury occurred on the previous possession when he turned to watch a shot by Pacers’ Ian Mahinmi and stepped on the center’s foot.
“I actually ran up the court after that,” Millsap said. “It wasn’t feeling right so I just pulled it.”
Millsap went straight to the locker room and the Hawks announced his return was probable. However, after taking part in second-half warmups, Millsap knew he couldn’t continue. Tiago Splitter started in his place.
Millsap, who earlier in the day had been named to his third straight All-Star game as a reserve, played 13 minutes and finished with four points and five rebounds.
“It just didn’t feel right,” Millsap said of the warmups. “I didn’t want to put myself and the team in a situation where I hurt them. So, I felt like it was best if I didn’t go on it.”
Millsap is the Hawks leader in points and rebounds. He missed his first game of the season last week at the lowly Suns (personal reasons) and the Hawks dropped the game.
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