Trae Young posted a historic line in Friday’s overtime win against the Lakers, writes Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Hawks guard had 31 points, 20 assists and five three-pointers, making him the first player to reach those numbers in a single game since at least 1979/80.
He capped the night with a game-winning three-pointer after being unexpectedly left wide open. Young passed the ball to De’Andre Hunter, who had already made five shots from beyond the arc, and when the defense double-teamed him, nobody rotated to Young.
“I think Trae made a good read,” Hunter said. “He started to attack slightly. They both went with him. When he passed it to me, I saw them both run at me. So it was kind of a simple play. Trae reads space. He was making shots all the night, so I was confident he would make that one, for sure.”
It was a welcome performance by Young, who has been struggling with his shot for most of the season. Williams notes that he’s only connecting at 37.5% from the field and 30.7% from beyond the arc since October 27, as opposing teams have been trapping him or picking him up full court to force the ball out of his hands. With the roster getting healthier, Young expects to get more open looks and more opportunities to create for his teammates.
“If you’ve been watching, we’ve been having a lot of guys in double figures,” he said. “So this wasn’t the first night that it’s been like this. So we just got to continue to keep it going. Even in some of our losses, we had a lot of guys scoring. So, we just got to keep it going. And now we got guys healthy. We found a little rhythm. We got can’t get too high or too low at any moment.”
There’s more from Atlanta:
- A lot of preparation goes into Dyson Daniels‘ disruptive defense, Williams adds in a separate story. The 21-year-old guard is having his best season in his first year with the Hawks, leading the league in steals by a wide margin and being recognized as the first-ever Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month. Daniels explained his intensive study of the players he has to guard. “One thing for me is I know where people have to bring the ball to get power to go up,” he said. “So, a guy like Giannis (Antetokounmpo), for example, he got me a couple times (and) I missed it. But you have to bring the ball across your body to get your power. So usually, if someone gets past me, and there’s a big at the rim, and they try Euro step, they’re always going to bring the ball across their body to the left side. So that’s when I can swipe it.”
- The Hawks are on a five-game winning streak as coach Quin Snyder’s vision for the team is being realized, observes Cyro Asseo de Choch of HoopsHype. Putting an emphasis on taking advantage of athleticism to score in transition, Snyder has the Hawks eighth in the league in scoring and 11th in pace.
- Jalen Johnson has been added to the Hawks’ injury report with soreness in his right shoulder, Williams tweets. He’s considered questionable for Sunday’s game with Denver.