Chris Herring, ESPN Senior Writer
NEW YORK — As the final seconds ticked down, Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young knelt over the New York Knicks midcourt logo at Madison Square Garden, where he caused great pain. I’ve received a lot of scorn, but I pretended to roll with it. He and his team punched the ticket to Las Vegas this weekend for the NBA Cup semifinals.
On Wednesday night, Young and the Hawks defeated the Knicks 108-100, buoyed by a ferocious run in the second half. It was the latest example of the three-time All-Star having a little fun in New York.
Young and his club knocked the Knicks out of the playoffs on the Garden floor in 2021, and Young marked the victory by taking a bow at center court and waving farewell to the crowd. He came up with another celebration ahead of Wednesday night’s victory.
“We’re going to Las Vegas, so we had to do that,” he said of rolling the dice.
Young added: “My brother and I made the plan a few days ago. We had talked about it. I mean, I knew what I was going to do.”
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Knicks star Jalen Brunson didn’t begrudge Young’s celebration, saying only, “If we don’t want him to do that, we should win the game.”
DeAndre Hunter had 24 points and Jalen Johnson had 21 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists for the Hawks, who will face the Milwaukee Bucks for a spot in the NBA Cup title game on Saturday.
Young, who recorded 22 points, 11 assists, and 5 rebounds, was a big boost for the Hawks in the second half. The Knicks (15-10) led for much of the game, leading 66-62 midway through the third period, but Young scored eight straight points, including a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions, and Atlanta (14-1) vs. 12). ) lead.
The Hawks stepped up their defense after halftime, forcing the Knicks to commit three violations in 24 seconds. Guard Dyson Daniels, perhaps the league’s most destructive defender through the first third of the season, contained Brunson, holding him to 14 points on 15 shot attempts, his second-fewest points of the season. Repeated stops allowed Atlanta to get out in transition, and the Hawks were able to outscore New York 61-46 in the final two quarters.
Another big factor was Atlanta’s 22 offensive rebounds, 14 of which came in the second half. On one possession in the fourth quarter, the Hawks made four consecutive misses and capitalized on Onyeka Okongwu’s layup.
“That’s where you take the soul of a team, and I felt like we did that tonight,” Hawks veteran center Clint Capela said.
Capella took advantage of the Hawks’ routine of playing music from artists in the town they had just won, playing a song by rapper 50 Cent in the locker room at The Garden, which he visited after the win. The center said the nature of the win, especially the vise-like defense in the second half, showed Atlanta could be a force as its young, athletic players continue to develop.
“If we can shut down multiple possessions like this, I think it shows that we can be a really special team. We’re getting better in terms of our rhythm and some of our new players… I’m starting to feel really confident,” Capela said of the Hawks, who beat the Celtics, Cavaliers and Knicks (three of the top four teams in the East) in cup games this season.
The end of the game couldn’t have been more different from the beginning. The Hawks, who dictated the pace in crucial minutes down the stretch, appeared to get whatever they wanted when the Knicks blitzed the ball out of Young’s hands. Atlanta was perfect on those possessions, totaling five alley-oop dunks in the final 6 1/2 minutes of the game. Three of them were supported by Young.
The Hawks used four young rotation players, each under the age of 25, but they turned around completely from the start of the game and quickly found themselves trailing 11-2. Immediately after that, the Garden’s scoreboard went blank, leaving fans and players alike unsure of the number of points scored.
“I thought we were a little nervous at the beginning of the game,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “Someone told me the scoreboard wasn’t working early on, but that might have been a good thing.”
