Trae Young gives 'MF' shoutout to injury replacement as Hawks stun Celtics

11/13/2024 09:50 AM

The circumstances surrounding the Atlanta Hawks’ NBA Cup group stage opener against the Boston Celtics weren’t ideal. Already shorthanded while dealing with the absences of De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic, among others, the Hawks were also without their best player in Trae Young, as he has to miss play due to an Achilles injury. Despite this, the Hawks managed to pull off a come-from-behind victory over the reigning champion Boston Celtics, 117-116, as a host of players stepped up in Young’s absence.

The player who grabbed the most headlines was Dyson Daniels, as he spearheaded the Hawks’ attack on both ends of the floor, leading the team in scoring with 28 points while continuing his incredible steals hot streak. But Young wanted to make sure that the contributions of the man who replaced him on the starting lineup, Keaton Wallace, did not go unnoticed.

“KEATON WALLACE. REMEMBER THE MF NAME! I'm not gonna say it twice. @KeatonWallace22,” Young wrote on his official account on X (formerly known as Twitter) following the Hawks’ win.

Wallace doesn’t garner much fanfare, and it’s not hard to understand why. He went undrafted in 2021 and spent the past three seasons in the G-League before the Hawks gave him the call to join their Summer League roster and impressed the team enough for him to be given an opportunity to stick around on a two-way contract.

The 25-year-old guard is the older brother of Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace, who has looked like a crucial member of OKC’s young core thus far, and he is proving that he too can contribute to winning basketball. Wallace was the one who played defense on Jayson Tatum in the Celtics’ penultimate offensive possession, hounding him just enough to force an errant catch on the inbounds pass.

Wallace may not have blown anyone away with the seven points and eight assists he tallied on Tuesday night, but Young, who did not have to shout him out the way he did, certainly recognized just how crucial of a part he played in the Hawks’ incredible victory over the Celtics.

The Hawks’ young core is flying high

The Hawks are assembling for themselves an impressive young core, and on Tuesday night, their potential was in full display. Atlanta’s current roster does look like it has the young, nascent players that fit seamlessly on a Trae Young-led squad, and to top it all off, they also showed that they’re capable of holding the fort even in the absence of their best playmaker and scorer.

A lot has already been said about Dyson Daniels, and Young did shout out Keaton Wallace. But Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu also deserve their flowers. Johnson dropped the second triple-double of his career, while Okongwu played a huge role in the Hawks’ decimation of the Celtics on the glass (20 offensive rebounds for Atlanta compared to just six for Boston) while scoring the game-winning putback.

Zaccharie Risacher, the first overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft, also flashed his potential earlier this year, and the Hawks appear to be in a better place, roster-wise, than they were when they had Dejounte Murray.

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