With Trae Younger, the numbers are not often in query

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The numbers that Atlanta guard Trae Younger are placing up are historic: 28.Three factors and 11.2 assists per recreation getting into Tuesday. Preserve that up for a complete season, and he’ll do one thing that solely Oscar Robertson, Tiny Archibald and James Harden have completed.

Stats like these sometimes get a participant no less than talked about in an MVP dialog. With Younger, it won’t even be a assure that he’ll be within the All-Star dialog.

The Hawks open their post-Christmas schedule at Chicago on Tuesday evening, with Younger attempting to do one thing that no person has ever pulled off in NBA historical past. He’s had no less than 30 factors and 10 assists in every of his final seven video games, tying Robertson’s league-record stretch executed within the 1964-65 season. Apart from Robertson, till now, had ever managed that in additional than 5 consecutive video games.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m going to cease you proper there,” Younger mentioned after he tied Robertson’s mark. “Let’s go to a different query. I don’t wish to speak about my stats. Let’s speak about one thing else. Thanks, although. Recognize you.”

Possibly that’s an indication of maturity from Younger, who has a assured swagger that may be perceived as conceitedness. To his credit score, he’s 6-foot-1 and could be the lightest man within the league; the Hawks listing him at 180 kilos, which appears beneficiant. He doesn’t typically let being the smallest participant on the ground impede him in any manner on the subject of placing up numbers.

However generally, his numbers get checked out as empty energy. Younger’s stretch of 30-point, 10-assist video games appeared barely seen, what with the league going into its Christmas schedule and with Detroit on a 26-game slide that tied the worst single-season run in NBA historical past going into its matchup Tuesday in opposition to Brooklyn.

And it needs to be famous, the banged-up Hawks went 3-Four in these seven video games with Younger on this 30-10 tear. Nice numbers, not nice outcomes.

“You may’t consider a participant’s efficiency essentially primarily based on their stat line,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder mentioned. “That’s notably true when you’ve gotten a playmaker or a frontrunner on the court docket.”

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