The Hawks had to finish the remainder of their victory over the Pacers Saturday without guard Trae Young. Officials ejected Young after he launched a ball at the referee during a timeout during the third quarter.
The ejection came after Young felt frustrated after he was called for an offensive foul on a 3-point shot from the logo. Officials deemed that Young kicked his leg out as Pacers guard Aaron Nesmith attempted to close out and defend the shot.
Young fell to the ground after Nesmith made contact and immediately protested the call.
The turnover resulted in a 3-pointer from Tyrese Haliburton that tied the score at 84 with 7:30 remaining in the third quarter. It led to Hawks coach Quin Snyder calling a timeout to try to reset the team.
Young, who already had 14 technical fouls this season, picked up his 15th. Should he receive another this season, he would miss the Hawks’ next matchup.
Both the Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks and the Warriors’ Draymond Green have had to miss games because of the number of technical fouls they have racked up this season. Green missed the Warriors’ game against the Hawks earlier this month after he picked up his 16th technical foul the game before.
Young exited Saturday’s game with 14 points, three rebounds and five assists. The Hawks won the game 143-130.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what happened,” Hawks guard Dejounte Murray said. “So, I was confused when I was walking over and seen that he got ejected. But at the end of the day, you know, it’s next man up. And I think we stayed together, and we played for the whole game. We did not allow it to turn into a negative. We turned it into a positive and we got a great win.”
Even though the Hawks rallied and did not allow Young’s absence to negatively affect them, Snyder emphasized how much the guard means to the team. He added that following the game, he and Young discussed the ejection and Snyder said that the two-time All-Star owned up to his mistake.
“Frustration can’t get to that point,” Snyder said. “When it does, that can’t be a response. And it’s something, I know that, he’s not the only one that’s lost his cool. But certainly, we’re not talking about everybody else, right now. We’re talking about Trae and he’s too good a player, we need him.”
The Hawks did not make Young available to the media after the game.
The Hawks host the Grizzlies at 6 p.m. Sunday in the second of back-to-back games.
