ATLANTA – Bad enough that Milwaukee has sicced Jrue Holiday and assorted other angry stags on Trae Young in this conference final. Now the arbiters are beating him up, too. For in Sunday’s Game Three it was a sixth man, if inadvertently, who was key to stopping the Atlanta Hawks star guard.
With the third quarter winding down and the Hawks holding a tenuous three-point lead, Young wrenched his right ankle after stepping on the foot of referee Sean Wright. Near the sideline, Young had been pivoting to head up-court on defense, with Wright just behind him, and just out of bounds.
Young sat on the court for a long while in disbelief before heading back to the locker room to be attended to. He returned for the fourth quarter with an obvious limp and was a shadow of the player who already had banked 32 points through the first three quarters. The Hawks were outscored 30-17 in the final quarter – with Young managing but three more points – and thereupon lost the game 113-102.
“We had the lead, were doing good, had a lot of momentum on our side just freakin’ bad accident,” Young said.
Processing any injury can be difficult, but doubly so when it happens in such a uniquely bizarre fashion.