Suiting up
As sure as night follows day, Trey Young will suit up in the Hawks’ match against the Bucks tonight. It doesn’t matter that a magnetic resonance imaging scan he underwent after Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals revealed a bone bruise in his right foot. He may be listed as questionable, but it’s also the condition of the red and yellow heading into the pivotal set-to. Absent his unique shot- and playmaking prowess, they don’t stand a chance.
To be sure, the Hawks looked well on their way to victory the other day. Empowered by a capacity crowd of 16,650 at the State Farm Arena, the hosts started strong and needed all of the first three and a half minutes of the set-to to erect a double-digit lead. And though the Bucks would eventually claw back and stay close, they appeared to have the capacity to dictate the pace and thereby keep the momentum — until, that is, Young suffered from a sprained ankle off a freak turn of events with 36 ticks left in the third quarter. He was backpedaling out of bounds after the ball was stolen from him when he stepped on the foot of referee Sean Wright, in his words a “freaky bad accident.”
Nonetheless, the unforeseen development proved to be the difference for the Hawks; then up by three, they found themselves outscored by 14 the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Young, missing what he termed his “blow-by speed,” could do no better than score three points on one-of-four shooting in the span; just as crucially, he had zero assists along with a foul and a turnover in a minus-15 line over the last eight minutes and 44 seconds of the contest. In other words, the sprained ankle made him mortal. Before it slowed him down, he had been good for 32 markers (on 11-of-19 shooting from the field) and four dimes.
Which, in a nutshell, is why Young will not be missing tipoff of Game Four. He’s not one of the toughest players in the National Basketball Association for nothing, and he knows the Hawks need him on the court for them to at least have a fighting chance against the powerhouse Bucks. How well he does may be in question, but this much is clear: Hurting or not, he won’t not try.