Trae Young Gets No Revenge as Hawks Beat His Wizards 120-105

Trae Young waited ten months for this game, and the Atlanta Hawks made sure he left it empty-handed. The Hawks beat Young’s Washington Wizards 120-105 on Wednesday night in Washington, in the first meeting between the teams since Atlanta traded its four-time All-Star point guard in January. Young scored 18 points in his first game against the only franchise he had known, but Atlanta never let him take the night over, and the player the Hawks received in the trade delivered the blow that ended Washington’s last rally.

What happened in Young’s first game against Atlanta?

The Hawks controlled the game from the second quarter onward. Atlanta built a 16-point lead with a 13-0 run, led 48-32 with 9:06 left in the half, and went into the break up 68-61, the Associated Press reports. Washington kept coming back, and Young cut the lead to 83-79 on a step-back three in the third quarter, but the Hawks always had an answer, and the lead never dropped below six after that. Nickeil Alexander-Walker led Atlanta with 26 points and six three-pointers, two nights after tying his career high with nine threes in a win at Indiana. Returns to a former home have been a theme around the league this season, and Jaylen Brown watched his own Boston return from the locker room rather than playing in it, but Young got the full treatment: a start, the ball in his hands, and a defence designed specifically for him.

How did the Hawks shut Young down?

With the roster they built after trading him. Dyson Daniels, Lu Dort and Nickeil Alexander-Walker gave coach Quin Snyder three long, physical perimeter defenders to throw at Young in waves, and Atlanta kept changing assignments so he rarely found a rhythm, Soaring Down South reports. The Hawks also attacked him at the other end, forcing him through screens and into matchups he did not want. It was the same kind of grinding, physical night the league has seen all week, including the flagrant foul that got Jonathan Kuminga called for elbowing Alperen Sengun. Young still finished with six assists, but Atlanta held him to 18 points and never let him string together the run that used to bury teams in this building.

What was the turning point?

A four-point play by the man Atlanta got for Young. Washington had cut the lead to four on Young’s step-back three, and the crowd at Capital One Arena was back in the game. On the next possession, Corey Kispert drew a foul from Young on a three-point attempt and converted the free throw, the Associated Press reports. The lead was back to eight, and Washington never got closer than six again. Kispert was one of the players Atlanta received when it dealt Young to the Wizards, and Peachtree Hoops notes he baited Young into the foul. It was the cruellest possible sequence for a reunion night: the old star pulls his team within one possession, and the return piece in his own trade answers immediately.

What about the rookie in the starting lineup?

Kingston Flemings made the most of a surprise chance. The rookie guard was inserted into the starting lineup about an hour before tip-off, with CJ McCollum moving to the bench, and he opened the game with a three-pointer on his way to 14 points, Peachtree Hoops reports. McCollum still scored 15 off the bench, and Flemings kept breaking the paint and finding open shooters, finishing a night in which the Hawks topped 30 assists again. Peachtree Hoops reports the switch appeared to come at McCollum’s own suggestion, which is the kind of veteran move that tells a locker room the pecking order is earned nightly. It is also the kind of break fringe players chase all season, the same opening Dalen Terry seized with 43 minutes on an Exhibit 10 deal while chasing a roster spot of his own.

What did the night mean for the trade?

It showed why Atlanta made it, without proving anything yet. The Hawks won a game against their former franchise player without their own franchise forward, Jalen Johnson, who missed his second straight game with a sprained left ankle. They did it with defence, depth and a rookie starter, which is the identity they chose when they moved on from Young: versatility and physicality over one star’s offence. That does not mean the trade is won. Young helped lift Atlanta to heights it had not reached in years, and one November win does not settle a franchise decision. But the organisation believed a different roster construction could give it a stronger foundation, and on Wednesday the Hawks looked like the team they imagined. The league keeps rewarding that kind of roster bet, and the same shift toward letting defenders work produced the season’s first push-off call on Scottie Barnes in the preseason.

What happens next?

Friday, in Atlanta, with a bigger stage. The teams close their home-and-home set in an NBA Cup game at State Farm Arena, and that is the night Young officially returns to the building he called home for eight seasons. Atlanta hopes to have Johnson back in the lineup for it, Soaring Down South reports. Young will get another chance to deliver the performance Wednesday denied him, this time in front of the crowd that watched him grow up. The first reunion belonged to the Hawks. The second one, in his old building, is the one that will tell us whether Wednesday was a statement or just a bad night.