Trey Young of the Atlanta Hawks comes to court # 11 in the first half against the Brooklyn Nets at the State Farm Arena on April 2, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. Todd Kirkland / Getty Images / AFP
Trey Young scored 36 points – nine in the final minute – to help the Atlanta Hawks offset a career-high 55-point night from Kevin Durant and beat the visiting Brooklyn Nets 122-115 on Saturday.
Brooklyn 1:25 After Durant Dunk cut the Atlanta lead 111-108 with the rest, Young scored on a floater and 3-pointer to bring the lead back to eight points with 23.5 seconds left. The Hawks were in the -6 line for 6 in the last minute, four by Young, keeping the game away.
Atlanta (41-37) won its fifth game in a row and moved up to No. 8 in the Eastern Conference, dropping Brooklyn (40-38) to No. 10. Atlanta finished 1-2 seasons against Brooklyn and broke the three-game losing streak against the Nets.
36 points for that @TheTraeYoung
🧊 10 assists, 6 boards, 4 threesLed by Trae @ATLHawks Their 5th win in a row as they went to No. 8 before! pic.twitter.com/sRQAlEZpD3
– NBA (BANBA) April 3, 2022
From the Young Floor -24 for 10, four of them from 3s, and from the -14 line for 12, with 10 assists and six rebounds for his 39th double-double. D’Andre Hunter and Danilo Galinari each scored 15 runs.
Durant was 8-10 on 3-pointers with 19 and seven rebounds for 28 from the floor and was the best of his career at 54 points against Golden State when he became a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2014.
Kiri Irving has scored 31 points, including seven 3’s and six assists. The net has lost three of the four.
Kevin Durant went on to a career-high 55 points and 8 three-pointers.
What a special scorer. pic.twitter.com/EfbWzD2SiN
– NBA (BANBA) April 3, 2022
Brooklyn had a 10-point lead early in the first quarter and was 30-28 ahead of Durant for 15 points. But Atlanta’s offensive approach has resulted in a maximum of 30 free throws in the half-season, of which 22 have been successful. Hawks led 65-50 when Galinari fired a long 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds left in the half.
Hawks led 15 points at 5:45 in the third quarter on Young’s 3-pointer but could not slow down Durant. He scored 19 points in the period and was able to cut the Atlanta lead to 94-87 by entering the net fourth quarter.
Brooklyn reduced the lead to 97-93 when Cam Thomas made three free throws at 9:59, only Atlanta’s second-unit score of 10 and a 14-point lead at 7:15.
Both teams are back in action on Tuesday, with Brooklyn Houston traveling to Houston and Atlanta to Toronto.
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