Hawks Injury News: Josh Smith Out With Ankle Sprain

Josh Smith will not play tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder.  The Atlanta Hawks guard will sit out with an ankle sprain.  Smith did not travel with the team, so he will be completely unavailable.  Smith is receiving treatment back in Atlanta in hopes of returning to the court as soon as possible. #ATLHawks Injury Report: Johan Petro (lower back) and Josh Smith (right ankle sprain suffered vs. Rockets) - Neither will travel to OKC— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 3, 2012 According to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Consitution, Smith sprained his right ankle in the team's opener on Friday and will not play in the first road game of the season tonight.  Smith's injury causes a severe size disadvantage for the Hawks as they face the defending Western Conference Champions today.Smith is the team's leading scorer, averaging more than 15 points per game in his career.  Last season, Smith averaged 18.8 points per game.  He also averages 8.0 rebounds per game in his nine year career. Smith has spent every year of his professional career with the Hawks and has become a fixture in Atlanta.  His leaping ability and knack for scoring has helped the Hawks improve drastically since he joined them. The timeframe in which Smith will miss is not yet known.  Vivlamore says the team will update Smith's status as appropriate. Follow @hoopsinjurynews!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.nbainjurynews.com//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-34100676-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();