Hawks' Young bringing basketball excitement to Atlanta

By Chris Rickerson | Sports writer

The Atlanta Hawks defeated the New York Knicks 107-105 with a game-winning shot by Atlanta point guard Trae Young in Game One of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs on Sunday, May 23. 

This marked the Hawks’ first playoff appearance and win since they lost the series to the Washington Wizards in the 2017 first round. This also marks the Knicks’ first playoff appearance since 2013. 

“I was shocked they made the playoffs,” said Augusta University basketball commentator Chad Cook about the Hawks, who came on strong late in the season. “I have been a season ticket holder of the Hawks the prior two seasons before the pandemic, and they have been exciting to watch because of Trae Young, but going to the games back then and the thought of them being competitive seemed so far off.”

Atlanta posted a 41-31 regular-season record and finished in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, earning the Hawks an automatic slot in the playoffs. The Knicks were also 41-31 and were fourth place.

Game One of the playoffs was a back-and-forth battle with 10 different lead changes in the game until Young hit the game-winning floater in the fourth quarter with 0.9 seconds left to go . Young led the Hawks with 32 points and 10 assists in his first playoff game ever in the NBA.

Young, who averaged more than 25 points and more than nine assists per game in the regular season, silenced the Knicks’ home crowd and let them know he thrived off the negative chants and the loud crowd.

“When you start talking, you give the other side a lot of motivation, including those 15,000 fans who will be back Wednesday night,” said Cook. “Trae proved in Game One he is ready for that challenge, but I can’t imagine the hatred that is going to be spewing from the Knicks crowd in the next game.”

The Hawks struggled against the Knicks in the regular season with 0-3 record; thus, the Knicks got the higher seed for the playoffs. Knicks’ power forward Julius Randle, an NBA most improved player candidate, dominated the Hawks in the regular season, averaging 37.3 points and 12.3 rebounds a game. 

Atlanta held Randle to 15 points in the first game, shooting 6 of 23 from the field.

“If he had an average game for him in Game One, the Hawks don’t win because he had a horrible game and the Hawks needed a game winner,” said Cook. “I would expect Atlanta to keep keying in on Randle and make the other guys beat you, and I think if the Hawks get beat by the Knicks, it won’t be a Randle-centric thing.”

Atlanta has had many key additions to their team for the 2020-2021 season. The Hawks signed shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic to a multi-year contract and acquired forward Danilo Gallinari on Nov. 24, 2020. They also traded guard Rajon Rondo to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for guard Lou Williams. 

Despite only being able to play 44 regular season games, Bogdanovic was the third leading scorer on the team, averaging 16.4 points per game. He also had 18 points in Game One on Sunday. 

The Hawks decided to fire former coach Lloyd Pierce after a slow 14-20 start to the 2020-2021 regular season and named assistant coach Nate McMillan as the interim head coach on March 1. Atlanta finished the regular season 27-11 under McMillan, who had previously coached Seattle, Portland and Indiana. 

“It didn’t really seem like the guys were trying to win under Pierce,” said Cook. “They bring that winning talent in and they continue to get the same results, so I think Lloyd Pierce had to go because the team wasn’t producing.”

Atlanta will play Game Two of the first round of the playoffs against the Knicks on the road at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, May 26, at 7:30 p.m. This is the second game of a best of seven series. The game will be telecast on TNT. 

No matter how the series ends up and how far the Hawks go in the playoffs, Young and McMillan have reinvigorated Atlanta’s NBA franchise. There not quite back to the great days of Dominique Wilkins and Coach Mike Fratello, or even the Al Horford-Joe Johnson era, but there’s hope again in a city that has been dominated in recent years by the Braves and Atlanta Utd.

Contact Chris Rickerson at crickerson@augusta.edu.