Home-court advantage means nothing to Trae Young.
The Atlanta Hawks star, fresh off becoming public enemy No. 1 at Madison Square Garden, made a new nemesis at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday as he dropped 35 points in a 128-12 win over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The performance made Young just the second player in NBA history to score at least 30 points in each of his first career road playoff games.
The other? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known as Lew Alcindor when he accomplished the feat for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1970.
The 22-year-old’s impact was felt immediately on Sunday as the Sixers did not have any answers to stop the point guard.
He helped put the Hawks up by 20 at halftime with an incredible first half in which he finished with 25 points and seven assists.
But the Hawks had to sweat it out at the end of the fourth quarter.
The Sixers, down 26 at one point in the first half, clawed their way back to nearly complete an impressive comeback, narrowing the deficit to a three-point game with a minute remaining.
Once again, though, it was Young who delivered.
With the Hawks back up by five points, Young dribbled across halfcourt and as he approached the 3-point line he floated the ball up over the head of Joel Embiid to John Collins, who threw the ball down with authority for an alley-oop.
It appeared to be the dagger, although the Sixers cut the lead back to within two with 10 seconds remaining, but Bogdan Bogdanovic hit free throws down the stretch to give Atlanta the crucial Game 1 road victory.
The alley-oop, on the other hand, gave Young 10 assists to finish with a double-double in what should shape up to be an intriguing series.
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