The Miami Heat did to Trae Young what so many other teams haven’t been able to do: they kept the dynamic guard from putting points on the scoreboard.
Young led the NBA in total points this season, and he finished fourth in average at 28.4 points per game. He pushed that average up to nearly 31 over the final 15 games of the regular season to help Atlanta solidify its spot in the play-in tournament where he dropped 38 on Cleveland to get the Hawks in the playoffs. But that’s where the scoring would stop.
In five first-round games against the Heat, Young had more turnovers than made field goals.
Trae Young finished this playoffs with more turnovers (30) than baskets (22). pic.twitter.com/jY9lyi3P5l
— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 27, 2022
It’s possible Young simply ran out of gas after carrying such a heavy load down the stretch of the season, but credit is also due to Miami’s defense. The Heat had the NBA’s fourth-best defensive rating in the regular season, and they have the second-best rating in the playoffs so far.
No one on the Hawks felt the brunt of that more than Young, who averaged just 15.4 points on 32% shooting and 18% from three in the series. According to StatMuse, he’s the first player in the 3-point era (since 1979-80) with at least 30 turnovers and fewer than 25 field goals in a single postseason.
It’s no wonder when he had to deal with stuff like this:
Trae Young has PJ Tucker on him then Bam Adebayo switched on him….then Jimmy Butler switched on him. Trae is in HELL 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/w2Qdb1NvOW
— the shape (@raisedharmony) April 25, 2022
Imagine having PJ Tucker pick you up half court, get a switch and it’s DPOY candidate Bam Adebayo, then get another switch and it’s Jimmy Butler. What exactly are you supposed to do with that? Even with Butler out for Game 5 on Tuesday, Young managed just 11 points on 2-of-12 shooting. It’s a far cry from last postseason when he averaged nearly 30 through the team’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Next up for the Heat is the winner of the 76ers-Raptors series, and more and more I want to see them and the Celtics advance to set up what would be an absolute bloodbath of a series between two defensive juggernauts and the teams with the current best odds to win the East. Heat-Bucks wouldn’t be a bad series either.
