The Miami Heat are definitely looking like a number-one seed right now, wreaking havoc on the Atlanta Hawks and leading the first-round series, 3-1.
Going into this series, the Heat knew that their biggest goal was to limit the ability and power of Trae Young.
The Hawks star can be an absolute menace on the court and if he gets shut down the Hawks greatly suffer.
Shutting Young down is exactly what the Heat have done.
The Heat defense has held Trae Young to
24 turnovers
24 assists
20 basketsthis series. pic.twitter.com/yNFWhTJp8d
— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 25, 2022
So far in this series, Miami has held Young to 24 turnovers, 24 assists, and just 20 baskets.
This isn’t the Young that Atlanta fans are wanting or expecting.
And it’s driving them straight out of the playoffs.
Hawks Are Hurting
The chances of the Hawks turning things around and winning this series are all but gone.
There was optimism that they could turn things around on Sunday night because the Heat were without Kyle Lowry and the Hawks got Clint Capela back.
And yet, the Hawks got trounced, losing 110-86.
Capela wasn’t a threat at all – scoring only two points.
As for Young, he only scored nine.
It’s become very obvious that the Heat have figured out the Hawks and have that team’s number.
The elimination of Young is only one of the many problems plaguing Atlanta.
They are simply being outsmarted and outplayed on the court.
The Hawks were a Cinderella story last season and one of the breakout teams of the year.
However, that’s not the case this time around.
The Hawks are about to enter their offseason and they will need to take a good, hard look at what went wrong in the weeks and months ahead.
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