Trae Young scorched Portland on Friday night with an 18-point first quarter on his way to 26 points and into second place in season scoring among Hawks rookies.
Young also joined Oscar Robertson as the only rookies in NBA history to have at least 1,400 points and 600 assists in their rookie season.
Young, who has scored 1,444 points this season, trails only Pete Maravich among Hawks rookies. Maravich scored 1,880 in the 1970-71 season.
Young’s 18 points are the most he has scored in a first quarter this season and is tied for the most points he has scored in any quarter.
“You could see it coming out he was cooking, doing his thing,” Hawks forward John Collins said. “No one is really going to stop him when a guy gets hot like that. I feel like it’s tough to sustain that level of play throughout four quarters, but I feel like he did a solid job throughout the game getting his and just trying to settle the game down later.”
Despite his great start, Young scored only eight more points in the Hawks’ 118-98 loss to the Trail Blazers at State Farm Arena.
“A lot of the floaters he made in the first half he didn’t make in the second half,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said. “And that’s part of it. As good as he was in the first quarter shooting and scoring, you know, he got the same looks they just didn’t fall down.”
His 3-point shooting hurt Young. He made his first attempt for his 150th 3-pointer this season. That made him the 12th rookie in NBA history to convert at least 150 3-pointers. However, as the game continued, Young struggled from behind the arc, missing his seven other attempts.
The Trail Blazers made an effort to limit Young as much as they could after his dominant first quarter. Young noticed the change, as he said they began to blitz his pick-and-rolls.
“We don’t usually blitz pick-and-rolls, but tonight we made a concerted effort to show him a little bit more of a crowd in those situations,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said.
Young finished with nine rebounds and seven assists, one rebound short of recording his 28th double-double.
“For me, I didn’t shoot the ball well,” Young said. “I started off early, but all my shots weren’t going in after that first quarter. So for me, I got to do a better job of making plays.”
