Kyrie Irving is expected to make his return to the Brooklyn Nets lineup Sunday against the Atlanta Hawks, league sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Irving has been out since mid-November with a right shoulder injury. He recently returned to 5-on-5 workouts in practice and is preparing for his return Sunday in Brooklyn.
The Nets, who have gone 13-13 without Irving in the lineup, are listing him as probable for Sunday’s game.
On Thursday, Irving said that he had assigned a self-imposed deadline of one week for his return.
“Hopefully I get some game reps in addition to practice probably in the next week or so,” he said. “It could be less than that, but I’ll give myself a week.”
Irving was able to fully participate in practice for the first time Thursday morning, including working through 5-on-5 contact drills. Coach Kenny Atkinson said Irving played with both the starting group and the second unit.
Irving said a week and a half ago that he began to do 2-on-2 work with coaches and has slowly ramped up his workload. Irving said he has no limitations “other than just keeping my shoulder maintenance program going before I get on the floor.”
Information from ESPN’s Malika Andrews was used in this report.
