Combined efforts of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray should encourage Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks still face long odds in their first-round series against the Boston Celtics, but they have to be encouraged by the way Trae Young and Dejounte Murray played together in Friday night's Game 3 win, writes Jeff Schultz of The Athletic.

Atlanta avoided falling into a 3-0 deficit after the backcourt combination turned in one of its best games since Murray's acquisition last summer. The pair combined for 57 points in the crucial win, with 38 of those points coming after halftime.

“At one point, I was just like, I should just keep quiet and let them do it,” coach Quin Snyder said. “They had some isolation situations where they created for themselves and for other guys and a lot of that was them just figuring it out. People feed off that.”

Schultz notes that ever since the Hawks sent a bevy of picks and assets to San Antonio in exchange for Murray, there have been questions about whether that pair can be effective together. Former general manager and team president Travis Schlenk reportedly did not support the deal and the results have been lukewarm during a regular season in which Atlanta posted a 41-41 record.

While a recent report has indicated Atlanta will consider trading Young this summer, Schultz believes that Friday’s performance may show that he and Murray can find a way to make things work.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

• The Wizards may dream about landing a big name in the front office to replace fired GM Tommy Sheppard, such as Raptors president Masai Ujiri or Warriors general manager Bob Myers, but they might be better off pursuing someone who has succeeded in building a team in a mid-level market, contends Ava Wallace of The Washington Post. Wallace names Pelicans GM Trajan Langdon, Knicks GM Scott Perry, Bucks assistant GM Milt Newton and Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly as potential targets for Washington.
• The NBA was too lenient with former Hornets forward Miles Bridges when it agreed to reduce his 30-game suspension to 10 games for next season, argues David Aldridge of The Athletic. Aldridge disagrees with the league’s reasoning that Bridges would have served 20 games of that suspension if he had signed with a team this year. He also notes that the current NBA CBA gives commissioner Adam Silver the power to invoke a harsher penalty under its “misconduct” section, should he so choose.
• Kevin Love is back in the Heat’s starting lineup for Saturday’s Game 3 against the Bucks, tweets Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Chiang observes that the new starting five of Love, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo have only played together for two minutes in the series -- and just 13 minutes during the regular season.