Trae Young’s Eastern Conference finals debut was a great one.
The Hawks’ star point guard led his team to a 116-113 win on the road against the Bucks on Wednesday. Young scored 48 points — tied for the fourth-most in conference finals history — joining the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki.
Most points in a Conference Finals game:
54 — Michael Jordan
50 — Dirk Nowitzki
49 — LeBron James
48 — LeBron James
48 — Dirk Nowitzki
48 — Trae YoungTrae joins LeBron as the only 22-year-old on this list. pic.twitter.com/6MLQ2YEyyq
— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 24, 2021
Young also grabbed seven rebounds and dished out 11 assists. That made him the second-youngest player in NBA history to record 45-plus points and 10-plus assists in a playoff game. The youngest was Luka Doncic, who was famously traded for Young on draft night in 2018.
MORE: How Mavericks, Hawks both won the Luka Doncic-Trae Young trade
Young’s most impressive assist was an off-the-glass pass to John Collins, who finished with a dunk.
Young also showed off some swagger as he shimmied before nailing a 3-point shot late in the third quarter.
Needless to say, Young’s antics thrilled Hawks supporters, NBA fans and basketball analysts, and they voiced their thoughts about his performance on Twitter after the game.
For the record, I did not love Trae Young’s shimmy before he hit that wide-open three. He’s no Steph from three – a lousy 32% in the playoffs, only 4-13 tonight. But I’ll give him this: The shimmy sent a message to the Bucks & their fans that Trae does NOT Fear the Deer.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) June 24, 2021
If there was ever a glaring reminder of the stark contrast between playoff and regular season basketball, it’s that Trae Young was not an All-Star this year while Ben Simmons was
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) June 24, 2021
Safe to say that the Trae Young “empty stat” narrative is dead.
— SWISHOUT (@swishout) June 24, 2021
no way trae young gon become the king of new york, philly AND milwaukee 😭😭
— 𝗠★ (@stymead) June 24, 2021