The Atlanta Hawks, fueled by 22 points and 11 assists from Trae Young, erased a 10-point third-quarter deficit to beat the New York Knicks 108-100 on Wednesday and book an NBA Cup semi-final against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Hawks point guard Young, the player Knicks fans have loved to hate since Atlanta’s 2021 playoff series triumph over New York, came alive in the second half to get the Hawks offense firing after the Knicks dominated the first half.
He scored 12 points and handed out nine assists after the break, directing a balanced Hawks attack that was led by 24 points from reserve De’Andre Hunter.
Young found Hunter for an alley-oop dunk that pushed the Hawks’ lead to 14 points with 3:01 remaining.
Clint Capella threw down an alley-oop fed by Dyson Daniels and added another seconds later off a pass from Young as the Hawks put the game away.
“It’s a big game, especially for us,” Young said after the Hawks punched their ticket to the NBA Cup final four in Las Vegas. “We knew what the stakes were coming into this game, and we also knew the odds coming into this game, too.
“We just try to play for each other and play til the end, and that’s what we did.”
The Hawks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers — currently leading the Eastern Conference — and the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics to win their Cup group.
But they couldn’t get their offense firing early against a Knicks team that were an unbeaten 4-0 in group play and had won five of their last six games.
Atlanta seized their first lead of the game, 68-66, on Young’s three-pointer with 5:43 left in the third — part of an 11-0 scoring run that put the Hawks on top for good.
Josh Hart led the Knicks with 21 points. Karl-Anthony Towns added 19 points and 19 rebounds before fouling out in the final minutes, and Mikal Bridges added another 19 for New York, who failed to respond when Atlanta stepped up the pace in the second half.
Atlanta will play Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks in the semi-finals on Saturday in Vegas, where the final will be held on Tuesday.
Later Wednesday, the Golden State Warriors were trying to extend their dominance over the Houston Rockets in the last Cup quarter-final, with the winner advancing to face the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Warriors have beaten the Rockets in their last 15 encounters, a streak dating back to February 2020.
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