Spencer Dinwiddie to have planned absence vs. Hawks originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Wizards will be without starting guard Spencer Dinwiddie on Thursday against the Atlanta Hawks, a pre-scheduled absence for one of the team’s newest players.
“We mapped it out weeks ago with back-to-backs,” coach Wes Unseld Jr. said pregame. “We wanted to go in last night, he played very well, and today was already a day we didn’t foresee him being part of the action.”
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Dinwiddie, 28, played just shy of 30 minutes (29:31) Wednesday against the Celtics. Through four games this season, he’s averaging 19.8 points per game and six assists. Both marks lead the Wizards.
Dinwiddie suffered a partially torn ACL last December and spent the offseason in Brooklyn recovering, before he was traded to Washington in August.
In his place, the Wizards will start Raul Neto or Aaron Holiday. Neto, however, will make his return to the lineup in any capacity. The point guard missed Wednesday's game against the Celtics after suffering a shoulder injury earlier in the week.
“We’re trying to map it out to make things flow,” Unseld said of the starting lineup.
The team is also without center Daniel Gafford, who suffered a right quad contusion on Wednesday — though Unseld said there isn’t anything structurally wrong and he expects it to be a day-to-day injury.
