The Atlanta Hawks of late have been Trae Young’s team. They go where he goes. It had been proven in their magical run in the 2021 Playoffs, when–as a fifth seed–made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals.
If you weren’t rooting for the Hawks, Young was seen as a supervillain then, a diminutive destroyer of dreams who ended the playoff hopes of the New York Knicks (a team that was also on their own magical run) and the Philadelphia 76ers (a team heavily-favored then to make it to the Finals). Young averaged nearly 30 points and 10 assists in 16 playoff games that year.
Against the Milwaukee Bucks (the team that went on to win the championship), it didn’t feel like the Hawks were overmatched, even though on paper, they clearly were. Young would have you believe he can make miracles happen–until reality strikes.
The reality is Young can’t do it alone. Despite getting a ton of help from guys like Bogdan Bogdanovic, John Collins, Danilo Gallinari, and Kevin Huerter, what Young needed was an exact version of himself, someone who can do the things he does when he can’t. That’s what the Hawks were hoping for when they brought in Dejounte Murray this season. That hope became real in Game 3 of the Hawks-Celtics first-round series.
Here’s a snapshot of that:
With the Hawks holding on to a precarious two-point lead versus the Celtics with only two and a half minutes left in the game, Young side-stepped and sank a tough 3 over the outstretched arms of Al Horford in the right corner.
ICE TRAE pic.twitter.com/0OGyBujpY3
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) April 22, 2023
The Celtics answered at the other end with a basket to again come within three points, but this time, the Hawks went to Murray. At the opposite corner, Murray drained a tough, contested 3 over Derrick White to give the Hawks a six-point lead with less than two minutes left. That was it for Boston.
The Hawks went back in the A and defended homecourt, avoiding an 0-3 deficit against a determined Celtics team. It was the first playoff win for the Young-Murray duo.
Young finished with 32 points, six rebounds, and nine assists. Murray, doing his best impression of a Trae Young clone, finished with 25 points, six rebounds, and five assists. Not only did this dynamic duo performance helped Atlanta get the win, they also made Hawks history by becoming the first teammates to drop a 25-5-5 line in the same playoff game since 1966.
Mood pic.twitter.com/iU8lsNB4lS
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) April 22, 2023
After the game, Atlanta’s head coach Quin Snyder was all praises for his superstar backcourt, who he saw were “on the same page” for Game 3.
“They were talking to each other, first of all…Figuring out what they were thinking together. Playing off each other. You saw it in some of the executions in the fourth quarter. At one point, I was just like ‘I should just be quiet and let them go ahead and handle it,’” he said in the postgame interview.
It was a game of redemption for the backcourt tandem, who at times were not in sync with their on-court decisions and explosions. In the first two games of the series, Young only scored a combined 40 points and shot a horrible 14-of-40 from the field. In Game 3, he shot a far better percentage with 12-of-22 shooting. He also scored or assisted on 17 of the Hawks' final 30 points in Game 3.
Murray’s 21-of-49 shooting in the first two games weren’t much better. He corrected that with a more efficient 11-of-21 in Game 3. But if the Hawks want to continue to keep in step with the Celtics–who have their own Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown clone experiment happening over there–they will have to keep Young and Murray on the same page.
Two Trae Youngs (or Dejounte Murrays) are better than one.
