The Hawks already had quite the uphill battle facing the Boston Celtics, and the struggles of Trae Young have only compounded issues for Atlanta.
The star point guard has yet to deliver a quality performance for the Hawks in the first two games of the opening-round playoff series against the Celtics. He has shot a horrendous 35% (14-for-40) from the floor while shooting an even more abysmal 23.1% (3-for-13) from beyond the arc.
Young, who received overrated chants from the TD Garden crowd during Tuesday’s Game 2, certainly hasn’t played up to his standard as a high-volume scorer and he vowed to improve with the Hawks staring at a 2-0 series deficit.
“I can be better,” Young told reporters following the Game 2 loss, per league-provided video. “I didn’t shoot the ball really well. I had some turnovers where I was just driving (and the ball) left my hands. But I’m going to be better at home.”
Young aided the Hawks early on in Game 2 as Atlanta built an 11-point lead in the first quarter. But Boston’s strong perimeter defense, led by Derrick White and Marcus Smart, forced Young into coughing the ball up as the Hawks squandered their advantage. Young recorded 10 turnovers through the first two games.
White has drawn the bulk of the defensive assignment on Young, holding the two-time All-Star to a combined 5-for-17 shooting and blocking two shots when defending him in the series, per NBA tracking data. Smart has had similar success with Young hitting 2-of-8 shots when Smart is the primary defender.
“Obviously everybody knows defenses are keyed toward me and it’s up to me to make the right decisions, right reads,” Young said. “And throughout the game, I think I did in the first quarter early on and then kind of late in that first quarter, kind of lost the ball a couple times, had a few turnovers and it kind of got out of sorts. I didn’t play my best today and I know I will going forward.”
Despite the shortcomings, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder isn’t worried about the play of Young and expects that he will find a way out of his offensive slump before the series ends.
“Trae’s competed,” Snyder told reporters, per league-provided video. “The ball hasn’t been going in for him the way that it can and will. He’s no different than anyone else on our team as far as us finding a rhythm together. … So I know Trae, he’ll be the first one watching the tape on the plane trying to figure out ways where he can play better.”
