Atlanta Hawks Trae Young sends strong message on Celtics’ Jayson Tatum

For Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young, it might have been a familiar feeling watching Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum try over and over again with futility to get his scoring going – Tatum went 1-for013 from the floor for just three points before the fourth quarter when he exploded for 16 points on 4-for-8 from the floor, knocking down 4-of-5 triples to propel his team to victory.

Similarly, Young has gone through postseason struggles of his own, getting virtually stonewalled in the playoffs by the Miami Heat during the 2022 postseason. He was able to overcome some of that in their Game 5 win over the Celtics in the first round.

Young scored 16 of his game-high 38 points in the fourth quarter as well and, though was less efficient than Tutum, he did lead his team to a much-needed victory.

So, seeing the Celtics star overcome elicited this response from the face of the Hawks.

Tatum kept his team’s season alive facing elimination down 3-2 versus the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. After the game, Tatum got brutally honest about how he felt having to overcome such a rough shooting night – he did have seven boards, six assists, two blocks, and a steal before the game’s final frame.

“I’m not trying to do this s*** again,” he quipped during his postgame press conference via NBA.com.

The Hawks and Celtics duked it out for six games but the mutual respect was evident.

Tatum’s teammate Jaylen Brown was even brutally honest with the Hawks, essentially letting it be known that he felt they underperformed during the season.

“You gotta give credit to the Hawks,” Brown said ahead of Game 1 versus the Philadelphia 76ers via the CLNS Media Boston Sports YouTube channel on April 30. “I mean I think if they would have played like that all season they would have been a top-five team in the East. I thought they played extremely well. They role players were efficient. They played with high energy, we’re hard to guard. They crashed the boards. Yeah, they played a lot different than I’ve seen them play all season long. But credit to them for that.”

The Hawks hope with a full season under head coach Quin Snyder, they will be able to sustain that higher level of play throughout an entire campaign.

Atlanta Hawks add Anthony Lang to Quin Snyder’s coaching staff

“The Atlanta Hawks are adding Antonio Lang as one of Quin Snyder’s lead assistant coaches,” reported Michael Scotto of HoopsHype citing league sources. “Lang spent five seasons as an assistant under Snyder from 2014-19 and spent the past four seasons in Cleveland. More on Atlanta below.”

As Brad Rowland of ‘Locked on Hawks’ notes, Lang was also a player under Snyder when the latter was an assistant at Duke.

Scotto previously reported that Lang was among four potential candidates to fill out Snyder’s staff after the Hawks coach dismissed the current crop of assistants who were hired by his predecessor, Nate McMillan.

All of the candidates Scotto previously listed have ties to Snyder from his time in Utah coaching the Jazz and/or from his time at Duke.