The NBA has a wonderful thing, the almost unlimited ability to create stories. Stories that engage, narratives that give importance to bland matches if you are not a fan of the teams that face each other. And one of those stories was lived this morning in New York, in the victory of the Atlanta Hawks (111-117) against the Knicks. The protagonist of the play? Bring Young. Stage? A Madison who has found a new villain at the height of Reggie Miller (although with differences, of course).
And Young loves the role of bad guy. He played it on film in the first round of the 2021 playoffs when he eliminated the New Yorkers in five games and with superb performances that did not fall below 30 points at Madison. This morning, he continued the recital where he had left off. He even outdid himself: he shot up to 45 points, his record in the Mecca of basketball, with a 7/15 from the triple. One of them, key to tie at 105 with three minutes to go.
Trae Young’s performance
180 final seconds that broke the duel. Everything from the perimeter: the aforementioned Young and then one from Bogdanovic and another from Hunter for an insurmountable 105-111. Bogdanovic closed his best performance of the season with 32 points. To top it off, Young left TJ Gibson sitting with a spectacular crossover that ended in a basket (105-113). “We needed to win this game. It is a much-needed victory for us”, assured Nate McMillan, coach of Atlanta, who feels the play-in: they are 5.5 games ahead of Washington Wizards, their pursuer. The Knicks, meanwhile, are already hopeless. Another season to forget.
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