The Hawks will hold out five players in the regular-season finale against the Pacers on Wednesday to rest and avoid injury with the postseason to set to begin this weekend.
The Hawks have clinched the No. 5 seed and will fact the No. 4 Wizards in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The result of Wednesday’s game has no bearing on the playoff race. The Hawks will open the series in Washington.
The Hawks’ issued an injury report Wednesday that lists the following players as out:
Kent Bazemore (right knee bone bruise), Tim Hardaway Jr. (rest), Dwight Howard (mid-back tightness), Paul Millsap (left knee synovitis) and Dennis Schroder (rest).
Thabo Sefolosha (right groin strain) is listed as probable after the starting small forward returned Tuesday after missing eight games. He played 16 minutes in a win over the Hornets and said following the game he would like to play Wednesday to get into game shape.
With the five players out the Hawks will have Jose Calderon and Malcolm Delaney at guard, Taurean Prince, Mike Dunleavy, Ersan Ilyasova, DeAndre Bembry, Ryan Kelly and Sefolosha at wing and Mike Muscala and Kris Humphries at center.
The Pacers need a victory to clinch one of the two remaining playoff spots.
