For DeMarre Carroll and his left hamstring strain, discretion will be the better part of valor.
The Hawks forward and defensive specialist missed Friday’s game against the Spurs and most likely will sit out Saturday’s game at the Bucks for fear of aggravating the injury.
In December, Carroll tried to play against the Bobcats with a right thumb sprain. After going scoreless in 19 minutes, he missed the next two games for additional treatment after he clearly was bothered by the issue.
“Me and (coach Mike Budenholzer) talked about it,” Carroll said. “The biggest thing is don’t risk it for one game. If you pull a hamstring, then you are out four weeks rather than resting this thing and getting treatment. It’s better for the team.”
Budenholzer also said the Hawks would err on the side of caution.
Carroll said his plan is to miss two games and return for Monday’s game at the Thunder. That is a game circled on his calendar for the player openly campaigning to make an NBA All-Defensive team.
“I need that one to boost my defensive team (chances),” Carroll said. “I’m campaigning for an all-defensive team. I have to go out there and knock down the big dogs.”
Without Carroll, the Hawks moved Lou Williams into the starting lineup at shooting guard and moved Kyle Korver to small forward.
Disappointment for Antic: The Hawks also played without center Pero Antic, who will miss two to four weeks with a right ankle stress fracture. Antic said he has been playing in pain for the past two games after spraining his ankle in last week's game against the Nets in London.
“It was painful, but when you are on the court everything works differently, the adrenaline, but it’s big pain,” Antic said Friday while wearing a walking boot.
Antic had started eight of the 12 games at center after the season-ending right torn pectoral muscle injury suffered by Al Horford. Antic said he is very disappointed by the timing of the injury and hopes to be out closer to two weeks.
“You always feel for a player when he is injured and can’t be there to help the team and help his teammates,” Budenholzer said. “Everybody loves Pero. But we will continue to move forward with who we have. There has been a system put in place, defensively and offensively, that the whole group believes in and understands. We’ll keep playing ball.”
Antic averaged 11.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in his eight starts in place of Horford. He was replaced in the starting lineup by Gustavo Ayon. Paul Millsap said the team was just starting find a groove playing with Antic before his setback.
“It breaks the rhythm a little bit,” Millsap said. “It seemed like we had just found a rhythm with Pero in the lineup, but we just have to find something quick with (Gustavo Ayon) in the lineup and see what happens.”
A free meal: Budenholzer said that a meeting against the Spurs is just "another game" despite the 19 seasons he spent as an assistant in the organization working under coach Gregg Popovich.
Friday was the third meeting between mentor and student as the Hawks hosted an exhibition game and then lost a December regular-season contest in San Antonio on Tim Duncan’s last-second shot.
“Hopefully a free meal the night before the game,” Budenholzer said of the only storyline in the game. “After that, you get into the game and you are competing and you dive into whatever it takes to win that game. It’s another game.
“Yes, there was a free meal.”
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