After a regular season that looked like it might end in the ultimate disappointment, Trae Young and his Atlanta Hawks have managed to rally themselves and make it into the playoffs in the Eastern Conference as the 8th seed. Young seems to be hitting form at just the right time and he was excellent in the play-in against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he’s even earned the title of Shaquille O’Neal’s second favorite player.
All that will mean nothing when they face the 1st seed Miami Heat though, the Heat are incredibly good on both ends of the floor and will be expecting to take care of the Hawks in the first round. However, Young is excited by the challenge. As someone that’s gone into various Eastern Conference arenas and dominated already, this could be another unexpected one to add to his list. He spoke about his team’s chances in the series (via TalkBasket).
“It’s exciting,” Young said. “It’s getting another opportunity. They’ve been clicking on all cylinders especially here recently. They’ve got a little bit more rest than we have so we got to be ready to bring it.
“We know that the crowd is going to be crazy and the environment is going to be fun. So we got to be ready to be locked in and take care of business.”
Trae Young became the villain in New York last season and in Cleveland this season, these are the sort of situations he has shown the ability to thrive. As a player that averaged 28.5 points and 9.7 assists a game this season, Young can always go off at any point in time and Miami will have to keep him in check.
An 8th seed beating the 1st seed isn’t something that happens very often, but the Hawks have the capabilities to pull off an upset if the players around Trae Young also turn up. However it shakes out, it does seem like quite a promising series for the first round of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTl40GyzE4M
