By Tiffany Williams –
Sunday night the Hawks will meet the Toronto Raptors for game three of four this season and for the second time since January 20, Trae Young is expected to return start for Atlanta.
Tonight’s game is game two of the Hawks season-long six-game homestand they kicked at State Farm Arena on January 26.
Against the Raptors, the Hawks are 1-1 this season. Back on December 13, the Hawks fell to the Raptors 135-128, but on December 15, the Hawks grabbed a 125-104 win.
On December 13, Trae Young recorded a season-high tying 17 assists, to go along with 35 points on 13-27 FGM and 4-9 from deep, collecting four rebounds and one block in 39 minutes. In his 374th career game, Young dished out his 3,500th career assist to become the third player in Hawks history to reach that milestone. Bogdan Bogdanovic netted his fourth straight 20+ point game, a career-high tying streak, finishing with 20 points on 7-13 FGM and 4-7 from beyond the arc, in addition to five assists, three rebounds and three steals in 32 minutes off the bench.
In Atlanta’s win on December 15th, Trae Young dropped 38 points and 11 assists, Clint Capela tallied 18 points and 15 rebounds, Onyeka Okongwu finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Saddiq Bey dished out ten points and ten rebounds. It was the first time four Hawks registered a double-double in a regulation game since November 7, 2007.
Friday night was the first game since January 20, that Trae Young played and the Hawks put down 143 points, and it was the fourth time this season tge Hawks 140-or-more points on the board.
In the 33 minutes Trae Young played, he recorded 30 points, 11 assists, three steals and one rebound, and registered his Eastern Conference-leading 12th game of the season with 30-or-more points and 10-or-more assists to record second-most in the NBA. It was also Young’s 74th career 30+ point, 10+ assist outing.
Jalen Johnson, Friday night dropped 25 points on 10-12 shooting from the field, in addition to a 2-3 clip from deep and a 3-4 mark from the charity stripe, three rebounds, three assists, one block and one steal in to become the first Hawk to finish a game with at least 25 points on at least .800% shooting from the field since De’Andre Hunter on November 3, 2021. Bogdan Bogdanovic registered 24 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals in 27 minutes off the bench, and Clint Capela finished with ten points, eight rebounds, two assists and one block in 25 minutes. Capela recorded his 371st career block as a Hawk on Friday, tying Cliff Levingston for the 11th-most blocks in franchise history.
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