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Hawks guard Trae Young out Thursday with sprained ankle

Atlanta star is expected to return to the floor next week

Atlanta’s Trae Young didn’t want to see the video of the play where he sprained his right ankle.

It hurt enough the first time.

Young left the Hawks’ game against the Miami Heat on Tuesday night after enduring a sprain — he said it was the first of his life — in the second quarter. The reigning Eastern Conference player of the week was scheduled for an MRI on Wednesday, but he ended up not needing the extra imaging, according to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Young is ruled out for Thursday’s game and expected to return to the floor next week, the team announced.

“It was painful,” Young said. “Knock on wood, I haven’t had too many injuries. I’ve been blessed not to have too many injuries throughout my whole entire life, so that was definitely a tough pain.”

Young was hurt on a drive about 2 minutes into the second quarter. He went into the air and landed on the foot of Miami’s Justise Winslow, twisting his ankle awkwardly. Young was eventually helped to his feet, initially unable to put much weight on that leg, and went to the Hawks locker room for further evaluation.

The Hawks quickly diagnosed the sprain and said Young would not return to the game.

“They did X-rays. I don’t think they saw anything,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said.

Young entered Tuesday averaging 34 points through Atlanta’s first three games.

Young played in 81 of 82 games as a rookie, only sitting out the team’s next-to-last game at Milwaukee. His 11 minutes on Tuesday were a career low, and the five points tied the second-lowest scoring night of his young career. He had four in a loss to Golden State last season.

“I definitely want to see that guy back out there,” Hawks forward John Collins said. “He’s had a hell of a start to the year. My guy off the court in general, so I just want to see him happy, healthy. You hate to see him go down like that, but you’re just hoping for a speedy recovery and back on the court when he’s ready and go from there.”

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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