Trae Young shook free from Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday, one of the NBA’s best defenders, and found himself with acres of space between himself and Bucks forward Bobby Portis.
And then the superstar guard for the Atlanta Hawks, with more time than he knew what to do with, decided to do a little shimmy before he let a 3-pointer fly, like so many of Young’s other shots in the Hawks’ 116-113 win in Wednesday’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, that softly settled into the bottom of the net.
“I mean, I had a lot of time,” Young, who finished with 48 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists in 41 minutes, would say later with a smile. “I had a lot of time.
“I was kind of tired a little bit, so I had a little second to get a deep breath, and knock it down.”
That Atlanta has made it this far has surprised practically everyone. That it has become only the fourth team in NBA history to win three Game 1s on the road in the playoffs, according to ESPN Stats & Information research — joining a group that includes the 1999 New York Knicks, 1989 Chicago Bulls and 1981 Houston Rockets — is truly stunning.
