Hawks to go with big lineup against the Spurs

The Hawks will start Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Josh Smith, Al Horford, and Zaza Pachulia tonight against the Spurs and will be without Lou Williams (season-ending ACL tear), Anthony Morrow (back), and DeShawn Stevenson (rest). The Spurs will be resting their star Tim Duncan being the second night of a back-to-back. Larry Drew said he will use Devin Harris off the bench to split his minutes with Teague's now that the Hawks are down to just two point guards. Drew also noted that John Jenkins' minutes will increase as he will be thrust into a more prominent role due to the numerous injuries to the Hawks' backcourt. Al Horford, who missed last night's game with calf/thigh soreness, will play and does not have a limitation on how many minutes he can go.

With the injuries piling up, Larry Drew's task is becoming more difficult to keep the Hawks above .500, but he related this injury to the injury sustained early in the year by Horford last year. Drew expects the team to respond in a similar way and have the next man step up and for the team to share the weight of responsibility to make up for what they will be missing in Lou's absence, mainly in scoring the ball. Lou was third on the team in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game, and the Hawks will need guys like Jenkins to step up and fill some of that void. The Hawks will have an extremely difficult task with playing the Spurs and will have to find ways to speed the game up and get on the fast-break to have a chance for the upset.