Trae Young went off for 41 points in Atlanta Hawks win over CLE

If the Atlanta Hawks (27-30) are going to make a final push en route to the postseason, they are going to need more efforts from Trae Young like the one they got on Tuesday in the 124-116 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The victory keeps them a half-game ahead of the Washington Wizards for the final play-in spot and one game back of the Charlotte Hornets for ninth.

Washington was idle on Tuesday. But the Hornets fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves and have now lost two in a row. The Hawks are 3-2 against the two teams with one game remaining against the Hornets and two against the Wizards.

With 25 games left on the schedule, and just one before the All-Star break, falling behind any further is really not an option.

The Atlanta Hawks cannot turn ‘it’ off after what they showed against the Cleveland Cavaliers

Young made sure it wasn’t a choice either going off for 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first quarter. He would proceed to essentially repeat the performance twice over to wind up with 35 points through three quarters. The first-time All-Star starter finished the night with 41 points, nine assists, and three rebounds.

He also shot 59.1 percent from the floor and went 4-of-7 from three while knocking down 11-of-13 attempts at the charity stripe.

It is the fifth time this season Young has gone over 40 points and the second time he’s put up 41 points and nine assists this season. He also did it against the Houston Rockets back in the middle of December. The Hawks are now 3-2 in those games.

Young controlled the pace in what was a thrilling exhibition between him and Darius Garland.

Garland finished the game with 30 points and eight assists but was slightly less efficient than his counterpart shooting 54.5 percent overall and just 4-of-10 from downtown.

The fourth quarter saw Young score just six points to Garland’s 10. But it could be argued the former’s points were more impactful than the latter. Young’s gravity also opened up clean looks like this for Kevin Huerter and De’Andre Hunter who both hit big threes in the final frame. He also didn’t get in the way of Bogdan Bogdanovic who also scored six points in the fourth.

Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade have certainly had better days defensively.

Earlier in the year, Young spoke of it being difficult to get up for games in the regular season. Recently Clint Capela spoke of the team not preparing and taking every game as seriously as they should earlier in the season. Neither was an issue in this one.

Cleveland, the current fourth-seed following their second loss in a row, was held to just 6-of-21 threes in the second half after knocking down 8-of-12 in the first quarter alone.

This game featured 16 lead changes and 10 ties. But the Hawks finally seized control for good with 6:37 to go in the third quarter and never let go outscoring the Cavaliers 45-37 the rest of the way.

The Hawks got a season-high 25 points out of Danilo Gallinari and 18 points from De’Andre Hunter while Bogdanovic (who notched four steals), Capela, and Delon Wright each had seven rebounds. They wrap with the Orlando Magic who have lost three straight but did get one of their 13 wins this season against the Hawks back in December.