The Hawks kept their season alive in enemy territory Tuesday night, and they managed to do so without one of their best players.
Dejounte Murray was not available for Game 5 of the Atlanta-Boston first-round series after earning a one-game suspension for an incident with a referee in Sunday night’s Game 4. Nonetheless, the Hawks overcame the odds against the Celtics and extended the best-of-seven set largely thanks to Murray’s running mate, Trae Young, who put on an incredible performance at TD Garden.
Young logged a game-high 38 points — including a go-ahead, 30-foot, 3-pointer with less than two seconds to play — and dished out 13 assists in Atlanta’s 119-117 comeback victory. Although the star guard surely was riding a high after such a memorable outing, his postgame message to Murray was very business-like.
“Trae Young said that he FaceTimed Dejounte Murray as soon as he got into the locker room following the game and told him to get ready,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Lauren L. Williams tweeted Tuesday night. “He said that he told Murray before the game that the team would take care of business.”
The Hawks will have Murray back in the fold Thursday night in Atlanta where the East’s seventh seed will try to push their series with the reigning conference champions to a winner-take-all Game 7.
