Jock Landale Returns for Hawks as Lakers Visit Atlanta

The Atlanta Hawks upgraded Jock Landale to available Monday for the Los Angeles Lakers’ visit to State Farm Arena. Landale strained his left hip Oct. 31 in New Orleans and has not played since.

Atlanta listed him as questionable on Sunday. Monday’s update kept four other Hawks out. Tip-off is 7 p.m. ET, and Atlanta News First has the local broadcast.

Asa Newell remains out with a left great toe hyperextension. So do Mouhamed Gueye with a left foot fracture, Henri Veesaar with a torn right ACL, and Keshon Gilbert, whose listing now reads left knee inflammation and a non-surgical procedure.

The Hawks won all four games Landale missed. They beat the Indiana Pacers 108-104 on Nov. 2, swept a home-and-home with Washington, and came back from 17 down to beat Brooklyn 124-121 on Saturday. At 7-4, Atlanta is fourth in the Eastern Conference.

In the Oct. 21 opener at Orlando, a 132-125 win, Landale broke his nose and stayed in the game. He played the next week in a protective mask. Landale said he saw doctors in Charlotte the day after the opener and, days later, still had not been examined by the doctors in Atlanta.

“The mask has been a little rough,” Landale said. “It’s a massive adjustment, just messing with your vision a little bit. I was dealing with a swollen eye on top of that and a clogged tear duct and stuff.”

“It’s been a little nasty, but it’s fine,” Landale continued. “I’ve got to get used to it for a period of time, so it is what it is. Trying to just embrace it, put it to bed and move on.”

Landale was 1-of-13 from 3-point range going into the Oct. 29 game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“I’m sure it has,” Landale explained of the mask’s effect on his shot. “With that drastic of a drop-off since preseason — I think in preseason I would have been shooting over 50% from three, and now I can’t throw a stone in the ocean.”

“It is what it is,” Landale continued. “I’m trying not to create a narrative around it because I have to embrace it and just get used to it. I’m sure once I see one go through, everything will be sweet. I’m not too worried at all.”

That night, he went 2-of-4 from 3-point range and grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds in 15 minutes of a 114-111 win. Two days later, his night in New Orleans lasted 1:22.

Through seven appearances, Landale is averaging 6.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.0 assists. He is 17-of-38 from the field and 3-of-17 from 3-point range.

Landale said that same week that nearly all of his minutes had come with rookie Kingston Flemings in the second unit. Flemings has since moved into the starting lineup and started the last three games. Atlanta re-signed Landale in June to a one-year deal worth $14 million.

Luka Dončić is off the Lakers’ injury report after sitting out Sunday’s 121-116 win at Detroit with low back tightness. He is averaging 40.1 points in nine appearances.

Without him, Austin Reaves scored 43 points on 14-of-27 shooting in 37 minutes, and the Lakers led 38-14 after one quarter. Reaves is questionable Monday with an illness.

Quentin Grimes is out with a right finger sprain. He started in Dončić’s place Sunday and scored 12 points, and Lakers coach JJ Redick said afterward that X-rays on the finger were negative.

The Lakers are 9-2 and have won five straight. Monday is the second night of a back-to-back and the second stop on a four-game road trip that continues in Milwaukee and Phoenix.

It is the first meeting between the teams this season. Atlanta drafted Dončić third overall in 2018 and traded his rights that night to the Dallas Mavericks for Trae Young, the fifth pick, and a future first-round pick.

On Nov. 8, 2025, the Hawks beat the Lakers 122-102 in Atlanta. Gueye scored a career-high 21 points that night. He has not played this season after fracturing his left foot in a July 8 workout.

After Monday, the Hawks have three days off before visiting the Chicago Bulls on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Chicago is 1-8.