Hawks' Trae Young to Undergo Surgery for Finger Injury; Out at Least 4 Weeks

The Atlanta Hawks will be without their star player for at least a month as they pursue an Eastern Conference play-in tournament spot.

On Sunday, the Hawks announced Trae Young suffered a radial collateral ligament tear in the fifth finger of his left hand during Friday's loss to the Toronto Raptors. He is scheduled to undergo surgery Tuesday and will be reevaluated in four weeks.

Young played 35 minutes in that loss to the Raptors but was just 4-of-13 from the field for 11 points.

This is quite the loss for Atlanta, as the three-time All-Star is the team's go-to scorer and facilitator who generates much of the offense. He is averaging 26.4 points, 10.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 42.6 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from deep.

Atlanta has also lost three in a row and will need to turn things around for the foreseeable future without its No. 1 option.

It has some breathing room in 10th place in the Eastern Conference with a three-game advantage over the 11th-seeded Brooklyn Nets. As long as it can tread water and remain ahead of the 21-35 Nets and 21-36 Raptors, it should still be in position to make the play-in tournament when Young returns.

In the meantime, look for Dejounte Murray to be the primary scorer and facilitator from the backcourt.

Many teams wouldn't have an All-Star-caliber guard who could assume more responsibilities if the top option suffered an injury, so the Hawks can at least take solace in Murray's presence. They will likely also ask veteran Patty Mills to play more minutes even though he hasn't been much of a contributor this season.

Atlanta will put the new-look lineup to the test Sunday with a home game against the Orlando Magic.