Hawks cruise to 127-100 win over Raptors behind big performance from Young

The Atlanta Hawks were back in their first home game since the All-Star break to take on the Toronto Raptors. Both teams are coming off of losses returning back from the break, and it was the Hawks that came out victorious first, defeating the Raptors 127-100.

Trae Young got off to a quick start with 12 points in the first quarter, shooting five-of-seven from the field.

The Hawks led in the quarter by eight points, but the Raptors weathered the storm and went on a run themselves. Fred VanVleet was hard to stop in the first quarter as well scoring 14 points, and he gave the Raptors a five-point lead to finish the quarter.

To start the second quarter, the Hawks couldn’t get anything going on offense committing early two turnovers. The Raptors capitalized and increased their lead to 12 before Nate McMillan called a timeout.

The Hawks were a different team after that timeout, as they went on a 16-0 scoring run which gave them a 51-45 lead late in the second.

Young was once again a problem to stop in the quarter, scoring 13 points and finishing the first half with 25 points. The Hawks went into halftime with a 66-58 lead.

It was imperative that the Hawks didn’t come into the second half flat, and they indeed did the opposite, pushing their lead to 18 points. They continued to pile the points on, and the Raptors couldn’t get anything to click on either side of the floor.

It was a 59-18 run for the Hawks at one point, and by the end of the third quarter, they were up by 30 points.

The Raptors got into a rhythm to start the fourth and trimmed the Hawks lead down 23 points until a timeout was taken. Luckily for the Hawks, their lead was large enough and made a few shots to weather their run.

After a not-so-great performance from Young on Thursday against the Bulls, he bounced back and finished the game with 41 points and 11 assists. Onyeka Okongwu finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, and De’Andre Hunter, Kevin Huerter, and Bogdan Bogdanovic all finished with 14 points each.

The Hawks will be in Boston on Tuesday to take on the Celtics.