ORLANDO — Trae Young lived up to his reputation as “Ice Trae” by drilling a 30-foot 3 with 1.8 seconds left to play and lift the Atlanta Hawks past the Boston Celtics, 119-117, in Game 5 of their hotly-contested opening round series.
“I just had to trust in what I’ve done my whole life and shoot it with confidence,” said Young when asked about taking the shot with the Game 5 and his team’s season on the line.
Down 111-99 at the 5:24 mark of the fourth quarter, Young scored 14 of Atlanta’s points the rest of the way to score the improbable come-from-behind victory. He finished with 38 points on 14-of-33 shooting from the field, 5-of-13 from long distance and 5-for-5 from the free throw stripe.
Young’s heroics trimmed Boston’s series lead to 3-2 and the Hawks can even things up with a win in Game 6, which is scheduled for Thursday (Friday AM in Manila) at the State Farm Arena.
John Collins had 22 points for Atlanta while DeAndre Hunter chipped in 13 and four boards. Bogdan Bogdanovic added 18 for the Hawks, who made 49 of 92 shots (53.3 percent) and 12 of 38 triples (31.6 percent).
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 35 points on a sizzling 15 of 23 shot connect rate. But he had little help on offense where All-Star sidekick Jayson Tatum struggled with just 19 points on a mere 8-of-21 from the field. Tatum did have eight boards and eight assists.
Malcolm Brogdon and Robert Williams combined for 24 points off the bench.
“We had some boneheaded plays, some fouls. Gave them some opportunities to get going. We gotta finish the game,” said Brown as he lamented Boston’s inability to close out the series and move on to second round.
