Monday night’s game has been emblematic of how Trae Young and, really, the Atlanta Hawks’ season has been as a whole.
Trae Young may have put on the most incredible display of offensive fireworks we’ve seen from anyone this year. He scored 56 points and dished off 14 assists against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night.
You want to talk about a player being an entire offense? Young scored or assisted on 86 of the Hawks’ 117 points, per Kevin Chouinard of Hawks.com.
He also made some NBA history, becoming one of six players in NBA history to score at least 55 points and dish 10 assists in a single game. He joined the company of five Hall of Famers.
Trae Young tonight:
56 PTS (career high)
14 AST
17-26 FG
7-12 3P
15-15 FTHe joins Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook and James Harden (3x) as the only players ever with a 55p/10a game. pic.twitter.com/Qkx4yEhTac
— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 4, 2022
He was absolutely spectacular. This is was Young at his absolute peak so far this season and it probably doesn’t get much better than this as far as individual performances go.
There was only one problem: The Hawks lost.
The Blazers won 136-131 behind 43 points to Anfernee Simons. Damian Lillard didn’t even play. So while, yes, Young had one of the most spectacular performances we’ve ever seen, the Hawks still stunk. That’s been their entire season so far and exactly why they’re the 12th seed in a strong Eastern Conference at 16-20.
You’re probably asking yourself, “If Young is this good, why are the Hawks so bad? They did just make the Eastern Conference Finals last year.” And while there are many answers to that question and we’ll talk about all of them, but the biggest one is very obvious: It’s their defense.
