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Atlanta Hawks guard Lou Williams missed the team's shootaround on Thursday for reported personal reasons, and while his status for the game against the Milwaukee Bucks was up in the air at that point, Mike Budenholzer announced that he will indeed be absent from the lineup.
The initial shootaround absence was reported by the AJC's Chris Vivlamore, who noted that Mike Budenholzer provided the reason of "exciting family news", and thus, this wasn't a complete surprise. However, Bud didn't elaborate with any additional information on the absence, but simply said that "everything is ok" with Lou.
In on-the-court news, Williams has been conspicuously absent from the lineup, failing to appear in the last three games by "coach's decision", and prior to that, he was struggling with a career-low field goal percentage of 38.2%. Without him in the working rotation, coach Budenholzer has turned to a combination of Shelvin Mack and Dennis Schroder behind starter Jeff Teague, and that is expected to continue on Thursday night.