Young, Trae (1998- )

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    Trae Young and Jaylen Brown Feel the Heat of NBA Stardom

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    Atlanta’s Trae Young, Boston’s Jaylen Brown and the Nets’ Mikal Bridges are learning to handle the praise and the pressure of rising stardom.The crowd at TD Garden in Boston was serenading the star Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young with chants of “overrated!” It was late in Game 2 of Atlanta’s first-round playoff series against the Celtics, and the Hawks were down by double digits and well on their way to another loss in the series.It was a far cry from just two years ago, when Young was the up-and-coming N.B.A. darling who unexpectedly led the Hawks to the Eastern Conference finals after the team had missed the postseason three years in a row. This time, Young gave the Celtics fits — averaging 29.2 points and 10.2 assists over the series — but Boston dumped Young’s Hawks from the playoffs in six games.Now Young, who just finished his fifth season, is facing an existential challenge more daunting than any one playoff round: the Narrative. It once made him a star. It can also take that distinction away.“I understand there’s always the fiction in the narrative of, ‘That’s the superstar; that’s where he should be; and X, Y, Z,’” Hawks General Manager Landry Fields said in an interview before Game 4 against Boston. “And I understand that from the broader perspective. But for us internally, we see Trae, the human. Trae, the man. And how is he continuously taking his game 1 percent better, 2 percent better over time? So the expectation is really to grow.”In basketball, where individual players arguably have more impact on the game than in any other team sport, stars become lightning rods as they become more established, and playoff failures are magnified further. Every year, the Narrative adjusts its star player pecking order based on some amorphous combination of stats, team success and factors out of the player’s control, such as injuries. Narrative Setters — loosely defined as the news media, fans and league observers, like players, coaches and executives — shape the perception of a player’s evolution from rising star to star with expectations.Players like Young, 24, and Boston’s Jaylen Brown, 26 — top-five draft picks and two-time All-Stars — are undergoing this transition as so many other top-level players would expect. But others, like Nets forward Mikal Bridges, 26, have been thrust into the metamorphosis unexpectedly.Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young, center, scored at least 30 points in four of the six games against Boston in their first-round playoff series.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images“Consistency, your work ethic and your confidence puts you in that category,” said Gilbert Arenas, a former N.B.A. All-Star turned podcast host. “Now, what ends up happening is it’s outside influence that puts: ‘Oh, he needs to win a championship. He needs to do this.’ But reality will speak different. If my team is not a championship team, then that goal is unrealistic. So as a player, you don’t really put those pressures on you.”If a player fails, criticism often loudly follows. On ESPN’s TV panels. On Reddit. On Twitter. In living rooms. At bars. Through arena jeers and chants of “overrated.” On podcasts like the one Arenas hosts.By his mid-20s, Arenas, a second-round draft pick in 2001, had come out of nowhere to make three All-N.B.A. and three All-Star teams and was one of the most exciting young players in the league. But injuries dogged him for the rest of his career, and his decision to jokingly bring a gun into the Wizards locker room marred his reputation. With minimal playoff success for Arenas, the Narrative switched to questions about his maturity and his commitment to the game.Jeff Van Gundy, the ESPN analyst and former coach, said criticism and greater expectations usually came when a player signed a big contract or regressed after playoff success. He added that stars were also judged on their attitudes with coaches, teammates and referees.Young’s name surfaced in trade rumors on the eve of the playoffs, even though he is in the first year of a maximum contract extension. Young said in an interview on TNT that he “can’t control all the outside noise.”“I can only control what I can control, and that’s what I do on this court and for my teammates,” he continued, adding, “let everything else take care of itself.”He is on his third permanent head coach in the last three seasons, and while his regular-season offensive stats are stellar (26.2 points and 10.2 assists per game), teams often exploit him on defense. He was not named to the All-Star team this year.Young, of course, isn’t the only star with perpetually shifting perceptions. Some players are seen as ascending — like the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who carried his young team to the play-in tournament. Others players are on the dreaded descending side, like Dallas’s Luka Doncic, who failed to make the playoffs a year after going to the Western Conference finals.Gilgeous-Alexander, Doncic and Young are all the same age, but Doncic and Young receive far more criticism, despite their superior résumés. If that sounds illogical, welcome to sports fandom, said Paul Pierce, a Hall of Famer who hosts a podcast for Showtime.“This is what comes with this,” Pierce said. “Guys get paid millions of dollars, so we can voice our opinions.”In the 2000s, Pierce emerged as one of the best young players in the N.B.A. He was a 10-time All-Star, but short playoff runs prompted some to say he was overrated. He quieted most critics when he helped lead the Celtics to a championship in 2008 alongside Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.“Most players who reached the star status were players who come up in the league,” Pierce said. “They were McDonald’s All-Americans. They were the top player in their high school. So they expect to be in that position. So for me, I was like, ‘Shoot, I’m going to get there eventually.’”Bridges, the Nets guard, stepped into the spotlight after Phoenix traded him to the Nets in February as part of a deal for Kevin Durant. He was a reliable starter in Phoenix, but in Brooklyn, the fifth-year guard was thrust into the role of No. 1 option. He averaged a career-best 26.1 points per game in 27 games with the Nets while remaining one of the best defensive guards in the league.But the Nets quickly fell into a 2-0 series hole in their first-round playoff matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers. In an interview before Game 3, Bridges said he couldn’t worry about outsiders’ opinions. “You can’t control what they feel and think about you all,” Bridges said. “All you control is how hard you work and what you do, and personally, I know I work hard.”Mikal Bridges, left, suddenly became the No. 1 scoring option for the Nets after the Phoenix Suns traded him to the team in February for Kevin Durant.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesBridges played well during the series, but the Nets as a whole struggled to generate offense, and defenders keyed in on Bridges. The Sixers swept the Nets, the last victory coming in Brooklyn. Afterward, Bridges told reporters that he needed to get better and promised his team that he would. “I love my guys to death, and I told them that’s just on me,” he said. “I told them I’m sorry I couldn’t come through.”For Brown, the Celtics star, the disappointment came last year, when his team lost to Golden State in the N.B.A. finals. This season, his career highs in points and rebounds have made him a strong contender to make his first All-N.B.A. team. He has always been viewed as a dynamic wing, and the Celtics have never missed the playoffs during his seven-year career. Now the Celtics are the odds-on favorite to make the N.B.A. finals from the East — especially with Milwaukee’s having lost in the first round — and Brown has, at times, been their best player.“When I was younger in my career, I was the guy looking to make a name in the playoffs, looking to gain some notoriety,” Brown said.He has done that. But that means it’s no longer enough for him to be simply dynamic. He has to carry the franchise, alongside the four-time All-Star guard Jayson Tatum.“Part of his ascension is he’s really talented,” the Celtics’ president, Brad Stevens, said. “Part of it is he has got a great hunger. And part of it is he works regardless of if he had success or hit a rough spot.” He continued: “Then I think part of it is he’s been on good teams all the way through. And so, then you have a responsibility of, like, doing all that.”Players often say they don’t feel external pressure to meet outsiders’ expectations. But then there’s the pressure from their co-workers.“All of us want to be the best N.B.A. player ever,” said Darius Miles, a former N.B.A. forward. “All of us want to be Hall of Famers. All of us want to be All-Stars. And once you get in the league, you want all the accolades. So that’s enough pressure alone on yourself that you have.”Boston’s Jaylen Brown averaged a career-best 26.6 points per game this season, helping the Celtics secure the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.Brynn Anderson/Associated PressThe Clippers drafted Miles No. 3 overall in 2000; 15 picks later, they also took Quentin Richardson. Together, they made the previously adrift franchise exciting and culturally relevant. But injuries derailed Miles’s career. Decades later, the two close friends, like Arenas and Pierce, are Narrative Setters themselves as co-hosts of a podcast.“I think going to the Clippers, being the worst team in the N.B.A., we wanted to be accepted by the rest of the N.B.A.,” said Miles, who hosts a Players’ Tribune podcast with Richardson. “We wanted to be accepted by our peers. We want to be accepted by the other players, to show that we were good enough players to play on that level.”Pierce said social media had added a different dimension to how stars are perceived.“I really feel like social media turned N.B.A. stardom and took a lot of competitive drive out of the game,” Pierce said. “Because people are more worried about how they look and their image and their brand and their business now. Before it was just about competing. It was about wanting to win a championship. Now everybody’s a business.”But social media can also provide a much-needed and visible boost to young stars in their best moments. In Game 5 against the Celtics, Young went off for 38 points and 13 assists, stretching the series for one more game. Sixers center Joel Embiid tweeted, “This is some good hoops!!!” and added the hashtag for Young’s nickname: #IceTrae. It was a glimpse of the kind of play that has made Young so popular: His jersey is a top seller, and he was invited to make a guest appearance at a W.W.E. event in 2021.Rising stars, Van Gundy said, are always going to have ups and downs as they develop.“If your expectations are never a dip in either individual or team success, yes, that’s a standard that is ripe to always be negative,” he said. But, he added, “if your expectations are that guys play when they’re healthy, they do it with a gratefulness, a genuine joy and a team-first attitude — no, I don’t think that’s too much to expect.” More

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      Trae Young, Your Hair Is a Magnificent Unsolved Mystery

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      The complex ’do of the Hawks player has been debated, dissed and memed. But our critic pays respect to its “confusion, awe and strength.”What now? He’s gone. I mean, it’s gone. The single most fascinating thing about the N.B.A. playoffs hasn’t been, “Were the Nets ever really a team?” Or: “Whose death wish is better: Charles Bronson’s or Philly’s?” It’s not even: “Lord. What. Is. Ben Simmons. Wearing. To-night?” The single most fascinating thing about the last two postseasons has obviously been Trae Young’s hair.And now the matter is shelved, because the Hawks were just eliminated in Round 1 by the Heat, which means Trae Young is gone, which means so is that magnificent unsolved mystery of a haircut. I’m calling it a haircut. But that’s the thing about Young’s hair: cut where? How? This is hair so rich with paradoxical intrigue that a season of “Serial” wouldn’t be unwarranted. It’s thin yet full, short and long, wet but also dry, seemingly “young buck” despite seeming geriatric too, an optical illusion of barbering. There’s a fade, a part and bangs. It’s simply not a haircut. It’s a Michael Crichton novel.Young can be one of those thrilling, how-did-he-just-do-that basketball players, able to make passes that no regular body should be able to.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe reason to pay any attention at all to this is that Young can be one of those thrilling, how-did-he-just-do-that basketball players, a Cubist’s rendition of a Houdini routine. On a good night, he seems to ooze between players on his way to the basket or while making passes that no regular body — no regular N.B.A. body — should be able to. He sprays his way to the basket. Makes sense, he’s 23 and at 6-foot-1 is below the league’s average height, and therefore a squirt. But he’s got the swagger of 30 7-footers. The hair completes the thrill. It’s the fuse on a stick of dynamite, candelabra flames. The swagger’s not a secret. It’s even got a nickname: Ice Trae.Young’s an entertainer, and the hair’s part of the entertainment. His breakaway lob won Game 3 against the Heat. In this series, the hair was full in the rear, like maybe a bustle was back there. Part of the fun of that particular game was studying how any time Young took off, the back of his head seemed to gallop full on behind him, like something you might fly to Pamplona in order to flee. Anytime he juked somebody on the Heat, the hair could seem a-twerk. After his veritable game winner, the clock was stopped at 4.4 seconds, and Young strolled to the sideline where you might have noticed that the bangs had been upended, turned back, folded over, something. On television, this short, dark coastline bore no immediate relation to the darker plume behind it. Except: of course they were related! It was a lawn in two phases: mowed and wild. It was a geologic table: Triassic and Neogene. It was a treat: cotton candy and fruit roll-up.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesEverybody wants to know, what’s the point of this hair? Is it falling out? Is it being replaced? Is it still coming in? Are we looking at a technology in progress, at expensive science? Or is this simply, brilliantly, the art of nature? Nobody knows. But seemingly everybody with the N.B.A.’s app and a Twitter account would like to. Denzel Washington just wants it gone. “Tell that little boy to get a haircut,” he told Young’s Heat opponents on Sunday, after he ran into them in a hotel lobby and gave a pretty moving impromptu motivational speech. His advice for the “little boy” we all presume is poor Trae Young was just a bewildered aside: “What kind of haircut he workin’ with?” Um, Denzel: All of them! The real answer’s none of our business. I just adore how it seems to embolden Young, to make him brasher, slyer, swaggier. Or at least it did.Last year, in Game 7 of Round 2 against the Sixers, Young was dribbling down the court at top speed when he was flattened by Dwight Howard, who must weigh what two Trae Youngs do (and, for that game, wore his hair in a golden dread mohawk that said “dancehall rooster”). Down on his stomach, Young proceeded to do a set of push-ups right there on the court. One thing to love about that hair is that it doesn’t stop Young from doing stuff like that, straight trolling. The person wearing that hair wants you to think it’s going to bring him down.Young does push-ups after a collision with Dwight Howard of the Sixers in 2021.Matt Slocum/Associated PressEarlier in that run of the Hawks’, I’d watched them shock the Knicks in the opening game of their first-round series. We were all at Madison Square Garden and even the overjoyed, eventually crestfallen Knicks fans were, at least, appreciably flummoxed by how impossible Young looked. Slight yet entirely assured, daring, pressing, artistic. Little of that was on display this year. It was as if he was locked out of his own élan. The ’do had lost its derring. And now it’s back at home.I SUPPOSE WHAT some people want for Young’s hair is a Devin Booker or a Jayson Tatum. Something with evident shape. Hair that tells a story that doesn’t require trips to a glossary or reliance on a family tree. Something to dam a critic from a flood of metaphors. Indeed, Booker, who plays for the Suns and is currently saddled with a bum hamstring, and Tatum, who’s superseded Young as this postseason’s astonishment, do have more straightforward versions of what it seems like Young “should” be going for. Booker’s hair piles into a substantial, substantially handsome box of subtle curds. (Yes, curds!) And Tatum’s waving, almost ringleted, faded incarnation, complete with a short, shaped-up front curtain, really is the Bizarro Trae. You feel like you can explain it in five words or fewer: Renaissance Cupid goes to Freaknik.Young tries to shoot against Caleb Martin of the Heat on Sunday.John Bazemore/Associated PressBut the more time I spend with Tatum’s and Booker’s eligible-bachelor hair, the more I appreciate the gumption of Young’s. This hair is not an accident. (In fact, off-court, it’s tamed: a slick, glamorous number in a single inky shade.) Between games 3 and 4 of last year’s Knicks series, he got it cut. He did not cut if off. The back simply had less action than it had that month. Pure Ice Trae. This haircut happened in the Atlanta area, where the Hawks play. You just don’t play basketball for a team whose home also answers to Chocolate City with that hair and not know that people are going to have questions, that barbershops are likely twitching with exasperation, that as many stylists are probably waiting to jump you as Knicks fans were. Nonetheless, he persists. Well, he did.THE CLASH THIS MONTH between the Hawks and the Heat was exciting for its contrasting superstar hair. Jimmy Butler is the captain of Miami’s ship. For years, he’s had the single best hair in the N.B.A., an intricate tower of curls, twists and maybe dreads. In a league currently rich in cornrows and swinging plaits, thick with spilling meringues that may or may not require the aid of a hair sponge, there was nothing else like the control of Butler’s geyser. Every time I saw it, I wanted his hair to teach mine a class in structure, imagination and fades (fades that would tickle Mark Rothko). This did not look like easy hair to maintain. How, for instance, did he keep a consistent ratio among hair that seemed to dread, hair that twisted and hair that did something else? A delightful, loosely instructive video exists of Butler’s first post-N.B.A.-bubble haircut after the Lakers had beaten the Heat in the finals.John Bazemore/Associated PressAnd now? Well, that video’s an index of a glorious, bygone era, because all season he’s been playing with his hair braided. In poured inevitable comparisons to Allen Iverson’s cornrows. What Butler’s got going on is more artisanally illustrious than Iverson’s, which, nonetheless, remains the yardstick by which all other braided basketball hair is measured. He’s its Xerox, its Kleenex. Butler’s new hair, which is seemingly redone for each game, achieves grandeur (rivers, rivulets, lightning bolts, sculptures, crop circles, braids that clasp behind his head in a bunlet that rests just above the headbands he’s been playing in). This hair is a clear kick for him. There it is in another Michelob Ultra ad as its owner croons “I Only Wanna Be with You.” But me? I only wanna be with that box.So it felt fitting for this new hair to meet Trae Young’s in a playoff series. It’s got a clear purpose that isn’t all business and yet, in its way, is serious. And it must be said that Young’s does seem to be figuring itself out. Still, I remember what happened last year, going from Young’s Hawks to some other game. I was bored. After four quarters of Trae Young, everything else felt … flat. With him gone, it’s not all gloom. Hardly! The juicy Round 1 series between the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves is both an action franchise and a hair convention. It’s just that Young is a convention of one.Of late, Denzel Washington has become a meaningful font of fatherly wisdom. But on Trae Young’s hair, we must part. I don’t want it to change, although it probably will. It’s become too much of a thing. This has been hair that’s felt like it’s on its way somewhere, anyway; and I want to pay my respects before it gets there. Hopefully, its arrival won’t be too drastic. Young might owe his swagger to that hair, given the defiance required to wear it that way — those ways. It flies and swings and bounces and struts. It can do that thing that Mick Jagger does onstage, where he whips around as if to see who’s tapped him on the shoulder. It’s a source of amusement, confusion, awe and strength. It’s biblical that way. Cut that hair and a city might fall. More

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      Bucks Beat Hawks and Advance to the N.B.A. Finals

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      Milwaukee was playing without its injured star, Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks will face the Phoenix Suns in the finals.The Milwaukee Bucks advanced to their first N.B.A. finals since 1974 after defeating the Atlanta Hawks, 118-107, in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday night to take the series, four games to two. They will face the Phoenix Suns in the N.B.A. finals starting Tuesday. More

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      Trae Young Plays Like He’s a Great Shooter. The Bucks Should Let Him.

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      Young, the Atlanta Hawks guard, isn’t the 3-point threat that you would think, considering how many deep shots he takes.When it comes to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks star, much of the discussion is about whether he takes too many 3-pointers at the expense of his true strengths, which include his dominance in the paint.It’s a worthy discussion, but after Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, in which the Bucks convincingly equalized the best-of-seven series in a blowout, it’s also worth asking if that discussion should be directed toward Atlanta’s Trae Young, too.The Bucks put the game away in the first half with a 20-0 run en route to a 125-91 victory. How they won wasn’t exactly basketball rocket science. They made 3-pointers at a high clip. In the first half, Milwaukee shot 10 for 18 from deep and didn’t look back. Many of those shots were open and weren’t much different from the Bucks’ looks that didn’t fall in Game 1.As the perimeter opened up in Game 2, so did the lane for Antetokounmpo, who relentlessly attacked the rim, both in transition and in post-ups, and finished with 25 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in 29 minutes.The Bucks also disrupted Young by playing him more physically. In particular, Milwaukee used its length to cut off passing lanes, forcing Young into nine turnovers. Jrue Holiday, an elite perimeter defender, was more aggressive in containing Young, particularly coming off screens.“They just picked up their pressure, their intensity,” Hawks Coach Nate McMillan said after the game. “They played with more sense of urgency. I didn’t think Jrue did anything other than stay focused on Trae, containing the ball and just being right there.”Young didn’t hesitate to take the blame.“That’s all on me,” Young said. “I’ve got to be better at taking care of the ball and just do a better job of at least getting us a shot. Nine turnovers. I’ve got to do better, and I will do better next game.”There is another issue with Young that doesn’t seem to get as much attention beyond the turnovers, and here he may have something in common with Antetokounmpo.Antetokounmpo went 0 for 3 from outside the perimeter in Game 2. And with each missed shot, TNT’s Reggie Miller harangued Antetokounmpo on the broadcast for taking those wide-open shots, saying that he was bailing out the Hawks’ defense. It has been a theme throughout Antetokounmpo’s playoff runs. In this year’s second-round series against the Nets, every time Antetokounmpo had an open look at Barclays Center, the crowd would roar with anticipation, hoping he would take the shot.Miller and the Nets fans were onto something. Those are not great shots for Antetokounmpo, given his strength near the rim. But three long jump shots in a game isn’t much in today’s N.B.A.Young, who is supremely confident in his long-range shooting, is an example of that. His confidence is part of what makes him such a great player and why the Hawks have unexpectedly made it to the conference finals. But there is growing evidence that Young’s 3-point shooting is almost as problematic — if not more so — than Antetokounmpo’s, because he takes many more of them and hasn’t consistently knocked them down.Young and his teammates struggled from 3 in Game 2, finishing 9 for 36 from 3. Young went 1 for 8. The one make was a highlight-worthy quick release following a crossover against Holiday. That’s just it with Young: When he succeeds, he does it in a flashy way, making it easy to forget about the seven misses. It’s easy to chalk this up to a poor shooting night. But in Game 1, when Young masterfully poured in 48 points, what went less noticed was that he shot 4 for 13 from 3.OK, that’s two poor shooting nights — at least from 3. That happens. But when one zooms out and looks at Young’s history as a shooter, there are holes. Against the Philadelphia 76ers in the semifinals, Young shot poorly from 3 over seven games: 32.3 percent on almost nine attempts a game. In the opening round against the Knicks: 34.1 percent over five games.Over 204 career regular-season games, Young has shot only 34.3 percent from 3. For someone who has averaged more than seven 3-point attempts per game for his career, that’s not very good.Part of this is the difficulty in the 3s Young takes. As the primary ballhandler, Young is excellent at creating shots for others, but he rarely has shots created for him. That means many of his 3-point shots are coming off pull-ups or step-backs, and rarely off catch-and-shoots. They’re also frequently contested.In the regular season, 43.8 percent of Young’s shots came after he dribbled the ball more than seven times, according to the N.B.A.’s tracking numbers. For comparison, that same number for Kevin Durant of the Nets was 13.1 percent. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, a player Young has compared himself to, is at 24.3 percent.Young certainly looks the part of a great 3-point shooter: His form is similar to Curry’s. He is a great free-throw shooter (88.6 percent during the regular season). And he is often aggressively guarded as if he is a consistent threat as a shooter. But there’s isn’t evidence that he is much of one.During the regular season, when the closest defender was more than six feet away from Young, he only shot 39.6 percent from the field. During the playoffs, entering Friday, that number was slightly worse at 38.2 percent. (Curry, during the regular season, was at 48.9 percent. The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James was at 45.2 percent, and Durant was at 56.3 percent.)This is an argument to occasionally guard Young in the same way that opposing teams guard Antetokounmpo: Goad him into taking more deep shots, particularly step-backs. Give him more space and put a defensive wall up around the rim. Young makes up for his shooting with his skillful ball-handling in the paint and by getting to the free-throw line. While Antetokounmpo bullies his way to the basket, Young uses finesse. One of Young’s best weapons is a floater, which he deploys often coming off a pick-and-roll and seeing a Bucks big man drop back in coverage. On Friday, Young was 5 for 8 inside the 3-point line.Simply put: The Bucks should encourage Young to take shots he doesn’t usually make and stop him from getting the ones he usually does. Giving him more space to operate on the outside might help neutralize his skill at breaking down defenses to get to the rim. The downside is that this leaves more space for Atlanta’s other shooters as well. But Young is adept at finding them anyway when he gets into the paint easily.Young is a better deep threat than Antetokounmpo, who shot 30.3 percent from 3 during the regular season. But to an extent, shooting has so far been a weakness in Young’s career — one that the Bucks should not be afraid to exploit as the series heads to Atlanta on Sunday.Young seems to think he’s a good long-range shooter. Don’t disabuse him of that notion. More

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      Doubters. Haters. Trae Young Has Them. He Doesn’t Care.

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      Young, the Atlanta Hawks guard, has embraced the booing, cursing crowds and his opponents’ defensive pressure. What he hasn’t embraced? Low expectations.Nate McMillan, more than most, knows the unpredictable nature of a point guard equipped with unflinching confidence.As a member of the Seattle SuperSonics, McMillan shared a backcourt with Gary Payton. The brash Payton scored on nearly everyone and backed down from absolutely no one, Michael Jordan included.So McMillan, now the interim coach of the fifth-seeded Atlanta Hawks, did not panic when the shot of his star guard, Trae Young, was off throughout much of his team’s deciding Game 7 in the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday night against the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.“I can’t believe how calm I was throughout this game, and I think it just came from the fact that I knew these guys were going to give me everything they had,” McMillan said, adding of Young: “He’s fearless, so the opponents, they have to guard for that. He will take a shot if he’s open, regardless of how many shots he has missed. He really stretches the defense.”And Young missed a great many shots on Sunday. But his greatest strength is his confidence, maximized by the unpredictability of his repertoire.Will he spot up from 30 feet or whip a line-drive pass through a small crease into the hands of John Collins? Will he zig and zag into the lane for a floater or lob an alley-oop pass to Clint Capela? Will he pull back for a midrange attempt or lure help defenders into the lane before kicking the ball out to Danilo Gallinari, Bogdan Bogdanovic or Kevin Huerter?The options appear plentiful on every offensive possession, with Young choosing the route dictated by the defense. On Sunday, Young, dealing with a right shoulder injury, missed 17 of his first 19 shots, as Huerter assumed the offensive burden while amassing a playoff career-high 27 points.Young, center, has leaned into the intensity of the playoffs, rewarding home crowds, pictured, with his effort and shrugging off the jeers on the road.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe threat of Young pulling up from deep lengthened Philadelphia’s defense, and his many forays into the lane resulted in several finishes for Capela as Atlanta kept the game close.“I know I just had to find a way,” Young said afterward. “My shot was off tonight. My right hand and my shoulder — I was still trying to fight through it and push through it and shots weren’t going tonight, but my teammates showed up and made plays. Me, I just tried to find them.”In the closing moments, Young found his shot and Atlanta claimed the series with a 103-96 victory, earning its first conference finals trip since 2015. The Hawks will face the No. 3-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. Atlanta never trailed after Young’s midrange floater put the Hawks up, 86-84, and his long 3-point shot and free throws cemented the outcome.“They were making plays for me throughout the whole game,” Young said. “Just wanted to come through in the end and help them out a little bit. I know I didn’t shoot the ball great today, but they definitely made plays, and it was a total team effort tonight.”This season is coming to a close without the mainstays of recent playoffs, partly because of a rash of high-profile injuries. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers bowed out in the first round. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden lost in the second with the Nets. Stephen Curry’s only postseason appearances came while watching his brother, Seth, play for Philadelphia.Instead, these playoffs are providing a stage for players like Young and Phoenix’s Devin Booker to come of age. Both have been accused of putting up empty calorie stats for losing teams.Young took what defenses allowed as he learned the league during his first two seasons. He just didn’t have the caliber of teammates that he is now surrounded with in his third.Atlanta did not cross the 30-win threshold in either of the two previous seasons and was not one of the 22 teams invited into the Walt Disney World bubble last season when the N.B.A. resumed the pandemic-paused season.The organization quickly and smartly retooled itself by adding Bogdanovic and Gallinari through free agency and Capela and Lou Williams through trades to go along with the developing core of Young, Collins and Huerter. (De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish, two other young players, have been injured.)The Hawks began the season with the hopes of qualifying for the playoffs, but that goal seemed quickly out of reach. Atlanta started 14-20 before firing Coach Lloyd Pierce and promoting McMillan, who had been an assistant. The Hawks rebounded at the time Bogdanovic returned from an injury that had limited him, finishing the season 27-11 to earn the conference’s fifth seed.“It’s been a tough journey,” Young said. “It took a lot of losses to get here. For us, I think the guys who have been here since the rebuild, this feeling is a lot better than what it’s been. We know it’s our first year in the playoffs together, and it’s only the beginning, too. That’s the best part about this whole thing.”Young was at the forefront of both the rebuild and the rally and is averaging 29.1 points and 10.4 assists per game during the playoffs. He can be a frustrating player to watch. He entices fouls in a Harden-esque way, stopping randomly and purposefully in the lane so a defender can brush into him. He is getting results.So far this postseason, Young has bowed at Madison Square Garden while finishing off the Knicks in five games, and he performed push-ups on the court at Wells Fargo Center while outlasting the 76ers. The Hawks have claimed five road playoff games in New York and Philadelphia with Young relishing his role as a villain, smiling as crowds have booed and cursed at him.The last time the Hawks made it this deep into the playoffs, they were led by Mike Budenholzer, now the coach of the Bucks. Milwaukee flexes Giannis Antetokounmpo, a former defensive player of the year, and Jrue Holiday, who is regarded as one of the league’s premier perimeter on-ball defenders. The Bucks are paying Holiday handsomely — he signed a four-year, $135 million extension in April — to make an impact on a series just like the approaching one.The Bucks pose another serious challenge in a postseason in which Young and the Hawks have continually silenced their skeptics.No one expected Atlanta to qualify for the conference finals. The Hawks play like a team unaware people think it’s supposed to have a ceiling.Perhaps Young’s unflinching confidence is contagious.“The confidence is still there,” Young said. “The confidence is going to remain the same. We’re happy we made it to the Eastern Conference finals, but we’re not satisfied. So it’s great that we’re here, but we’ve still got some games to win.” More

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      Rowdy, Rude and Really Loud: New York N.B.A. Fans Let Loose

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      We’re back, baby! The chants. The cursing at referees! The cursing at opposing players. The cursing just because you can! And that was just in living rooms.New York City basketball fans were out in full force this past weekend, as the Knicks began a first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks, and the Nets opened their postseason against the Boston Celtics.Much to the chagrin of Knicks fans — known for their patient, understanding nature — their team lost to the Hawks in Game 1 of their series on Sunday, 107-105, thanks to a last-second floater from the villainous Trae Young.Across the East River the day before, the Nets — currently the Knicks’ adorable, more talented younger brother — easily dispatched Boston, 104-93.Yes, the Nets are the team more likely to win a championship this season. With the addition of James Harden to the tandem of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, they might have one of the most talented rosters in N.B.A. history. Yet, if this weekend was any indication, if the Nets indeed win the title, New York City may react with a collective shrug.Meanwhile, as the Knicks tipped off against the Hawks, the fans in Manhattan reacted as if Elvis had risen from the dead.OK, we’re being kind of unfair to the Nets. They’ve built an enduring fan base of their own. So they say. But attendees yelling “Brooooklyn!” repeatedly doesn’t have the same ring as Knicks fans yelling, uh, nevermind. We can’t type that here.“The crowd kind of threw me off a bit,” Harden said. “It was pretty loud in there, and the vibe was what we’ve been missing.”Derrick Rose, the Knicks guard, said the crowd was “everything that we expected and probably a little bit more.”Basketball has a long history in New York City, even if N.B.A. championships do not. This is a city of basketball aficionados, and seeing both the Knicks and the Nets make legitimate playoff runs at the same time is a cultural event.Who knows when we’ll get to see this again? More

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      A Wrenching Knicks Loss, but an Electric Night at the Garden

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      Playoff basketball returned to Manhattan as a cultural event with a loud, spirited crowd and a new archenemy, the Hawks’ Trae Young.For 47 minutes 59.1 seconds, the fans at Madison Square Garden ranged from raucous to delirious, as the Knicks — their Knicks — were locked in a dogfight on Sunday night against the Atlanta Hawks in the New York team’s first N.B.A. playoff game since 2013.And with nine-10ths of a second remaining, Trae Young, the Hawks’ star guard, was able to get around Frank Ntilikina, a guard ostensibly known for his defense, and hit a game-winning floater.Young then added insult to injury by using his finger to shush the crowd, a good portion of which had been sending profane chants his way for much of the game, a 107-105 Hawks win.”Next one.”🤫🤫-@TheTraeYoung pic.twitter.com/e41Knsyl53— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) May 24, 2021
      “I’ve always looked at it as I’m doing something right if I’m offending them with my play that much,” Young told reporters after the game, adding, “Just got to let my play do the talking because at the end of the day, fans can only talk. They can’t guard me.”Neither could the Knicks in Game 1 of this best-of-seven first-round series. An unfazed Young took the air of the building repeatedly as he took over in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t just the game winner. It was the two free throws with 28 seconds left. Another floater with less than two minutes left, plus a free throw. Young scored 13 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, deftly casting aside the howling home fans and the haymakers the Knicks kept throwing the Hawks’ way in a back-and-forth thriller. All nine of Young’s free throws came in the final quarter, as did three of his 10 assists.The Knicks tried valiantly to keep Young contained in pick-and-rolls. It didn’t work, as Young used his best weapon — the floater — to frustrate much taller centers.“He’s a great player,” Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks’ coach, said. “We’ll take a look at the film. You’re not going to be able to stay with a steady diet of anything, so obviously we have to do a better job.”Gathering outside Madison Square Garden before the game.Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for The New York TimesOn their feet inside near the end of the game.Pool photo by Seth WenigSunday’s game had all the hallmarks of the classic Knicks playoff games N.B.A. audiences were accustomed to in the 1990s. (Before tipoff, Thibodeau, who was an assistant coach for the Knicks then, recalled that he had never heard a building as loud as Madison Square Garden when Larry Johnson hit a game-tying 3 against the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the 1999 Eastern Conference finals — one of the most famous shots in Knicks history.)Game 1 was low scoring and defensively oriented, much like the premillennium Knicks. Angry fans chanted profanities at an opposing team’s best player (and the referees). Those same ones screamed so loudly that the public-address announcer could not be heard after RJ Barrett’s fast-break dunk over Bogdan Bogdanovic in the third quarter sent the crowd of 15,047 into a frenzy.An exuberant Spike Lee berated the referees and embraced Knicks players from the sideline. Other celebrities, like Tracy Morgan, Jon Stewart and Rachel Brosnahan, sat courtside to aid in efforts to rattle the Hawks. Christopher Jackson, the Broadway star, sang the national anthem. David Guetta, the French D.J., performed at halftime.The playoff opener was a reminder that at its best, the Knicks basketball experience is as much a cultural event in New York as it is a basketball one. (To that end, Andrew Yang, one of the leading candidates for mayor of New York City, posted a video of himself on Twitter shaking hands with attendees outside the arena before the game. He had apparently gotten over his previous disavowal of the franchise, which had also been done on Twitter.)The contest had everything Knicks fans could want except for a win. But this was the kind of game that had some significant outliers, making it difficult to project the rest of the series. For one thing, while Young, an All-Star, came through for the Hawks, the Knicks’ All-Star did not. Julius Randle, facing a steady rush of double teams, shot 6 for 23 from the field for 15 points. He dominated the Hawks during the regular season, but could not get his jumpers to fall on Sunday.“Listen, I’m not making no excuses,” Randle said. “I’ve got to be better, and I will be better. I’ll just leave it at that.”As a whole, the Knicks were one of the most accurate 3-point-shooting teams in the N.B.A. On Sunday, they were 10 for 30 from deep — 33 percent, far below their season average of 39 percent.The Knicks stayed in the game mostly because of the play of the reserves, particularly Alec Burks, who led the team with 27 points off the bench. Derrick Rose had 17 points and Immanuel Quickley added 10, including two momentum shifting 3s.Immanuel Quickley celebrated after hitting a 3-pointer in the first-half.Pool photo by Seth WenigA slight bounce here or a friendly foul call that doesn’t go Young’s way, and this discussion is way different. It would be about the Knicks returning to playoff glory and the large number of city residents who suddenly had to — wink, wink — call out sick on Monday. It would be about how the Knicks beat the Hawks despite their best players not playing well, and how well that bodes in a series in which the Knicks have home-court advantage.But the Hawks pulled it out. And they’re one game closer to a series win than the Knicks are.But there’s plenty of reason for optimism for the Knicks heading into Game 2 on Wednesday night at the Garden. Randle showed himself to be too good a player this season, particularly against Atlanta, to have a repeat of Sunday’s game. By the law of averages, more of those 3s the Knicks missed will start going in. The supporting cast showed it was capable of taking some of the load off Randle. And the team was 25-11 at home in the regular season.The unsolvable issue may be Young, one of the few players who can hurt a team from anywhere on the court. When the Knicks played up on him, he drove around them. When they gave him room to operate, he got off his floater or found Hawks teammates for dunks. The answer may be to pack the paint and encourage him to shoot more from 3-point range, where he was a 34.3 percent shooter during the regular season, or to send more traps at him to force the ball out of his hands.Even though Ntilikina was burned on Young’s game winner, he may get more time if Young continues to abuse the guards who had difficulty with him, like the starting guard Elfrid Payton, who continued to be ineffective.The one constant for Game 2 is that Knicks fans will be out in force. Lee will be there screaming, and thousands of others will match him note for note. As Rose said about the opener, the fans gave the team “everything that we expected and probably a little bit more.” More

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      Knicks Are a Playoff Threat After Years on the Sideline

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      When it comes to the playoffs, many Knicks fans are just happy to be here. But they can hope for more — like a first-round series win — because of Julius Randle.If you picked the Knicks before the season to have home-court advantage in the first round of the N.B.A. playoffs, you should probably head straight to Las Vegas because, as Bobby Bacala might note, not even Quasimodo could have predicted all this.For the rest of us, there is another opportunity not to underestimate this year’s Knicks. In the first round, they will host the Atlanta Hawks in the Knicks’ first trip to the playoffs since the 2012-13 season. The Hawks haven’t made the postseason since the 2016-17 season.Drawing the Hawks was a best-case scenario for the Knicks. Thanks in part to a three-game winning streak to close the season, they locked down the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, and avoided the Milwaukee Bucks, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Nets, the top tier of the conference. This is not to say the Hawks should be overlooked. They will enter the postseason as one of the hottest teams in the N.B.A. after winning seven of their last eight.But this is a winnable series for the Knicks, and it would be just their second postseason series win in this century. Both teams were 41-31, but the Knicks had the tiebreaker, giving them the higher seed.Here is a look at the two teams heading into the postseason.What you need to know:How the Hawks made the playoffsHow they’ve played against each otherWhose back is hurting from carrying his team?“We didn’t expect that” candidatesWhat kind of games will these be?Why the Knicks will win the seriesWhy the Hawks will win the seriesHow the Hawks made the playoffsAtlanta had high hopes after adding Rajon Rondo, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Danilo Gallinari and Kris Dunn in the off-season and trading for Clint Capela toward the end of last season. But a combination of injuries and a lack of cohesion, particularly on the defensive end, kept the Hawks from being a top-tier team. Like the Knicks, the Hawks were inconsistent in the first half of the regular season, which prompted the firing of their coach, Lloyd Pierce, in March. Rondo was later traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Lou Williams.Nate McMillan took over for Pierce as the interim head coach, and the Hawks finished the season 27-11 — the third best team in the N.B.A. in that span. The Knicks were the ninth best team in the league in that same period.The Knicks were also a good draw for the Hawks, since both teams lack playoff experience and are evenly matched.How they’ve played against each otherBarrett dunking against the Hawks at Madison Square Garden last month. Wendell Cruz/USA Today Sports, via ReutersJan. 4: Knicks over Hawks, 113-108 (in Atlanta)Feb. 15: Knicks over Hawks, 123-112 (in New York)April 21: Knicks over Hawks, 137-127 (in New York; overtime)The Knicks had the Hawks’ number this season, beating them in all three of their matchups. There is no team that Julius Randle, the Knicks’ best player, was better against. He averaged 37.3 points in the three games — his highest average against any team this season — along with 12.3 rebounds and 6.7 assists.But the Hawks were missing key players in each game, such as Gallinari and Bogdanovic, and they were a much different team in the second half of the season, so it’s difficult to read too much into these results. With Pierce as coach, the Hawks were 12th offensively and 22nd defensively. Under McMillan, Atlanta was a top-10 offensive team and morphed into an above-average defensive one.Whose back is hurting from carrying his team?Julius Randle24.1 points/10.2 rebounds/6.0 assists/45.6 field-goal percentageRandle’s career year makes him a candidate for an All-N.B.A. team. He led the league in minutes and missed only one game. The Hawks will surely throw double teams at him early and often. And in theory, players like Capela, John Collins and De’Andre Hunter should be able to frustrate Randle, but Randle did just fine during the regular season. He is skilled at finding open shooters and evading double teams.The issue for the Knicks has been getting Randle consistent help on the offensive end, where they were 22nd in the league.Trae Young25.3 points/9.4 assists/3.9 rebounds/43.8 field-goal percentageYoung is one of the best scorers in the N.B.A. and the engine that spurs the Atlanta offense. Despite his small frame, he can create space and score whenever he needs to because of his ball-handling and shooting skills. He is also an exceptional passer, one of two players in the league averaging at least nine assists per game. (Russell Westbrook is the other.) Luckily for the Knicks, their defense is designed to stop a player who thrives in isolation in the way Young does. RJ Barrett is a solid defender, and the Knicks had one of the league’s best defenses.“We didn’t expect that” candidatesFrank Ntilikina, left, has become a key player for the Knicks on defense.Elsa/Getty ImagesDe’Andre Hunter gives the Hawks a scoring punch that could be tricky for the Knicks to counter.Dale Zanine/USA Today Sports, via ReutersKris Dunn and De’Andre Hunter (Hawks)Dunn made his debut for the Hawks in late April after signing as a free agent in the off-season. Because of a knee injury, he missed all but four games. Dunn is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and now that he’s healthy, he may cause problems for RJ Barrett, Derrick Rose and the rest of the Knicks’ guard rotation.In January, Hunter, a second-year forward, averaged 18.7 points and 4.9 rebounds in 14 games on 53.3 percent shooting. For the rest of the season, he played only five games because of a knee injury that required surgery. On Sunday, Hunter played 24 minutes. If he had stayed healthy all season, he might have been considered for an All-Star spot.Like Randle and Barrett, Hunter made a leap this season. If he is anywhere close to what he was in January, that spells trouble for the Knicks. The Hawks have been playing great basketball over the last month, and adding players as good as Dunn and Hunter at this stage of the season is a luxury most teams don’t have.Nerlens Noel and Frank Ntilikina (Knicks)Noel and Ntilikina aren’t flashy players. Noel has trouble catching the ball underneath the basket. Ntilikina barely gets on the floor. But Noel is one of the best rim protectors in the N.B.A., and Ntilikina is an excellent wing defender. The Hawks like to penetrate and create open looks or alley-oops. Having Noel at the rim may help limit opportunities for Young to connect with Capela and Collins, while Ntilikina may get more time on the floor to keep Young from getting into the paint, something Thibodeau said was a possibility on Wednesday. And really, Ntilikina should probably eat into some of Elfrid Payton’s minutes.What kind of games will these be?Slow and probably low-scoring. Both teams were near the bottom of the league in pace, and playoff games typically have fewer possessions as defenses lock down.There will also be fans! It will not be the same atmosphere the Garden had in the 1990s playoff runs, but about 13,000 fans will be allowed at Knicks’ home games. Vaccinated fans will have their own section, where social distancing won’t be required. Others who show negative results for an antigen or coronavirus test can sit in socially distanced sections.Why the Knicks will win the seriesImmanuel Quickley scored 5 points in a Knicks victory over the Hawks last month.Pool photo by Wendell CruzRandle will continue his dominance of the Hawks. The Knicks’ suboptimal offense will get help from Atlanta’s suboptimal defense. Doubling Randle will frustrate the Hawks because of his ability to create open looks for perimeter shooters. Also, the Knicks are an elite 3-point-shooting team.On top of all this, Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau is a master at developing schemes to slow players like Young. As great a coach as McMillan is in the regular season, he has had minimal success in the playoffs. In nine trips to the postseason, he has coached only one team to a series win (the 2004-5 Seattle SuperSonics).Why the Hawks will win the seriesYoung will establish himself as a top-level star by carving up the Knicks’ defense. A Hawks team that is almost entirely healthy for the first time all season will finally show the potential that many analysts saw before the season. The player who unexpectedly hurts the Knicks the most will be Bogdanovic, who doubled his scoring output after the All-Star break under McMillan, giving Young a dynamic backcourt partner.And Williams, the streaky scoring guard, will win one game almost single-handedly for Atlanta. More