Brooklyn Nets MVP Kevin Durant and Trae Young had a heated exchange during the final few minutes of the game. However, the two brushed it off in the post-game interview.
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Atlanta Hawks faced yet another defeat in the hands of the Brooklyn Nets this season. The game was close until the fourth quarter when Kevin Durant decided to do what he does best and sealed it for his team.
Trae Young and co were in control until the first half and even in the third to some extent. But the turnovers cost them severely late in the game. There were multiple out-of-bound passes that disturbed Hawks’ pace when they were desperately in need of a run. Brooklyn Nets did a great of taking advantage of the silly turnovers and restricted Atlanta to just 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Sitting at the 9th spot in the eastern conference Hawks really needed this win. At this rate, they will only make the play-in tournament by the end of April. They are now 0-2 against their potential playoffs matchup if they manage to advance in play-in.
Kevin Durant was all over Trae Young in the fourth quarter
Kevin Durant had 31 points, 6 assists on 54.5% FG. He had 3 massive blocks, one of which came against Trae Young. Atlanta’s young superstar has 31 himself. In addition, he had 10 assists and 7 rebounds. However, he only shot 37% from the field and had 7 turnovers. Late in the game, he made a terrible pass that landed in Kevin Durant’s hands and that’s when the Hawks lost all hopes of winning.
With two minutes left in the fourth quarter, KD and Young got into a heated argument as the former was getting a little too physical on defense. Trae retaliated by shoving him but the matter did not escalate from there. KD walked off with a smile and drilled a jumper right after the incident to stretch the lead to 7.
The 23-year had to deal with the 6’10 forward on him all night. KD had some questionable defensive tactics to contain Trae and NBA Twitter had quite a lot to say about it.
After the game, he addressed the scuffle and gave his props to the Hawks all-star. It was difficult to judge what the two said to each other in the heated moment but clearly, neither one of them took it seriously. “I’ve known Trae since he was 10 years old. That’s the spirit of the game. I got nothing but respect for Trae Young, ” said KD.
Atlanta Hawks are in a precarious position after a great playoff run last season. The momentum has not translated to this season yet but it is too soon to rule them out of contention. They have an easy week coming up with Cavs, Rockets, and the Orlando Magic twice. They desperately need a winning streak that lasts longer than 2 games to dodge the play-in tournament.
