Trae Young gets 100% real on Hawks' recent tough schedule

11/10/2024 01:29 AM

ATLANTA – It was all good for the Atlanta Hawks in the first half against the Chicago Bulls. They were leading by 10 points, were shooting almost 43% from three, and had the Bulls right where they wanted them. They led by as much as 18 points in the half, and it looked like they were going to cruise to a victory until the Bulls remembered in the second half that the Hawks had played their fifth game in seven days, and were coming off a back-to-back the night before against the Detroit Pistons.

So far this season, Trae Young and Jalen Johnson lead the league in minutes, and it was obvious that were gassed in the fourth quarter against the Bulls, who ended up winning the game by 12 points.

“I don't know how much it says about teamwork, I think it says a lot about the schedule we've played,” Young said after the game. “We've had three back-to-backs in the last three weeks. Nobody is going to feel bad for us, we gotta fight through it. And it's not like we're playing back-to-back at homes, we're on the road and home. It's traveling and things like that. We gotta fight through this tough time and tough schedule, and we need guys healthy.”

Against the Pistons, Young played 41 minutes and did all he could to try and lead the Hawks to a win, but they fell short by one point. The next night, Young played 38 minutes, and throughout the game, you could see him bending down and taking a little more time to catch a breath. Young and head coach Quin Snyder talked throughout the game to see where they could find rest for him.

“He doesn't want me playing 40-plus minutes every night all the time,” Young said. “We did some different rotations tonight, just tried certain things out. constantly talking, things like that. Seeing if I need a blow or a rest, what I see, or what he sees on the court.”

“We communicate about it,” Snyder said. “During this stretch, it's a pretty unique situation. We've played with different rotations, just tonight, he and I were in communication. Can you get a blow here, can you get a blow there? He was obviously gassed at the end of the game. If we can get some stops, we can counter that by not having to work hard offensively.”

Hawks lose control late against the Bulls

For three and a half quarters, the Hawks were in total control of the game, and then the Bulls started to outrun them, which wore them down.

“Early in the second half they went straight to their bench, and you see the way they were playing and the guys they brought in, they were just running,” Young said. “They didn't run a play, they were just running. It can definitely wear you down, coach Billy Donovan is a really good coach and has been in this game for a while, so he saw what was going on, and they used that to their advantage.”

“They just started running,” Clint Capela said. “Their lineups were way more faster and way more aggressive on the drives, and we weren't able to get control of the game after that.”

With the Hawks playing so many games in the past week, they’ll get a break and won’t play again until Nov. 12 against the Boston Celtics, and then three days later they’ll play the Washington Wizards. By then, they should also have more players returning from injury.

The post Trae Young gets 100% real on Hawks’ recent tough schedule appeared first on ClutchPoints.