In first matchup, Trae Young, Luka Doncic put on impressive show

ATLANTA – In the chaos that whirls during timeouts at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena – a maelstrom of dancers gyrating around security guards to gut-rattling beats – the Hawks’ mascot, Harry the Hawk, strides through the madness toting a T-shirt bazooka that’s powerful enough to launch souvenirs all the way to the arena’s farthest seats.

It’s a hell of a weapon, and Harry wields it like Schwarzenegger in an ’80s action movie, scatter-blasting T-shirts to every corner of the arena. But Harry’s going to need more range if he’s going to keep up with Trae Young. And he’s going to need better aim if he’s going to keep up with Luka Doncic.

If we’re lucky, we’ll get two decades of what we saw on Wednesday night: Doncic and Young, players from literally opposite sides of the world, players raised on Steph Curry and the Gospel of the 3-Pointer, players dealt for one another on draft day and thus linked for their careers. Combined, they’re not even as old as Young’s teammate Vince Carter, yet they’re already carrying themselves with the confidence of 10-year veterans.

As for a verdict: Hawks 111, Mavericks 104. Doncic landed the early blows, but Young battled back to win this round at the bell. There’ll be many more to come.

Doncic is a 6-foot-7, 218-pound guard-forward – hell, let’s just call him a power guard – who, though still in his teens, already possesses court awareness and basketball intellect well beyond players twice his age. Young, 6-2 while standing on a phone book and generously listed at 180 pounds, has a shooting range of approximately five miles, with enough star power that, in his first game at home, got the coveted Last Player Announced slot.

Atlanta held the third overall pick in this year’s draft; Dallas the fifth. The Mavs coveted Doncic, whom they envisioned as the natural heir to the soon-to-retire Dirk Nowitzki. The Hawks were looking for a foundation-up rebuild. So Atlanta drafted Doncic and immediately dealt him to Dallas for Young and a 2019 first-rounder.

The howls began before Doncic and Young could even swap hats. Doncic’s the more NBA-ready prospect. Young’s a product of a shoot-first, shoot-last college system. On and on the debate went, as all NBA offseason what-ifs do, swirling around until the only certainty was that Young and Doncic would be bound together for their entire careers, each man’s play a potential referendum on a trade that, one way or another, will shape both franchises for a decade.

Which brings us, at last, to Wednesday night. The NBA schedule-makers knew exactly what they were doing, scheduling Doncic and Young against one another to open the Hawks’ home season. The league knows you gotta use the James Bond method – start ’em off with some fireworks – to get a season going.

What no one could have anticipated was just how well both players would be faring coming in. Young arrived in Atlanta averaging 23 points and 8.3 assists, while Doncic had notched 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists. Yes, we’re three games into the season, but they’d earned their title-bout status.

Before the game, fans in the Hawks’ 6th Man section throw their arms over each other’s shoulders, shouting “Trae! Trae! Trae!” as they sway, side to side, soccer-stadium style. Out on the court, Doncic is all business, fist-bumping teammates and opponents, until his face lights up when Carter comes in for a quick embrace. Doncic and Young, on opposite sides of the center circle, point and nod at one another just before the tip.

And then we’re underway. Young’s first drive, just 35 seconds into the game, gets swatted right into Doncic’s hands. As metaphors go, it’s an ominous one for Young.

Young and Doncic don’t often find themselves matched up against one another, but when they do, it’s clear that Young’s got the flash and the speed, Doncic’s got the size and the fundamentals. Early in the first quarter, Young, in transition, drives straight at Doncic, utterly dusting him before dishing off … only to see teammate Alex Len miss the lay-in. A few minutes later, Young drives the rim, gently laying the ball up and over Doncic’s outstretched fingertips … and the ball banks off the back of the rim.

Both teams push the ball as if they’re playing with a five-second shot clock, but only Dallas is converting, to the tune of a 26-point lead midway through the second quarter. This one looks like it’s going to be a rout.

Doncic is quietly stacking points, hitting step-back threes and easy lay-ins, and by the time we hit halftime, he’s got 12 points to Young’s two. The fans at the stimulation-overload State Farm Arena are willing to cheer anything, anything at all, but they’re not getting it.

And if you look closely, you can see these guys are still rookies. Young attempts a Jordan-on-Bryon Russell move at almost the exact same spot on the court, but Young ain’t Jordan yet, and gets called for the offensive foul. At another point, Doncic drives to the rim and Len cuts off his angle. If Doncic were Dwyane Wade, Len would probably get a 10-game suspension, but since Doncic’s not, Len gets credited with a block.

It’s a small but recurring theme, the rookies’ lack of ref respect. Doncic, for instance, fouls Kent Bazemore on a shot and keeps yapping to the refs about it even as Bazemore walks to the line; next to him, Carter seems to be telling him to dial it down a notch.

Young, for his part, looks like a precocious elementary school kid playing with the high schoolers; he can hit from anywhere on the court, but in transition he’s physically overmatched, not big enough to knock defenders out of the way and create his own space. It also makes him a liability on defense; in the game’s key Young-Doncic Mega-Moment, Doncic gets the ball in the post, slams into Young once, twice, three times with his left shoulder, then whips around to his right. All Young can do is foul. He’s pressing, trying too hard, and it’s reminiscent of something Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce said of Young about 90 minutes before tipoff.

“He comes from being a leading scorer, leading assist guy last year at Oklahoma,” Pierce said. “A lot of home runs, a lot of times when everything was on his shoulders. For us, we don’t need that. When he has the basketball, it’s just about him making simple plays. Let’s make it simple, let’s make it quick and keep it moving.”

And then, somewhere along the line, momentum tilts in the Hawks’ direction. The lead gets trimmed to 10 by halftime, and then to single digits, and then – after Young sinks 3-of-3 free throws, tapping his chest and pointing to the sky after each one – Atlanta takes its first lead of the night, 96-95.

“Once he settled in, he became the guy we all know and love,” said Carter, who’s taken on something of an Obi-Wan role to Young. “One thing I said to him at the free-throw line: stay the course. This is a long game. This is a long season. You’re going to have bad nights.”

Sure, Doncic comes right back with a running jumper to reclaim the lead. But Young is alive now, fully engaged, and Doncic – and the rest of the Mavericks – can only watch. Young brings the crowd to its feet with a dribble-through-the-legs, 180-degree spin-and-dish that leaves the Mavs’ Dwight Powell on roller skates. It’s the kind of move that gives this all-too-often moribund franchise an unexpected shot of hope.

As the minutes wind down, Young drains 5-of-6 clock-stopping free throws to ice the victory. These two ought to be playing each other in All-Star Games, Olympics, maybe even postseasons for years to come. And Doncic will get the best of Young at times. But for tonight, it’s Young’s night. As the buzzer sounds, Doncic (final stats: 21 points, nine rebounds) and Young (17 points, 12 in the fourth quarter) embrace near midcourt, and Doncic wishes his counterpart good luck going forward.

It’s a Hawks win – an improbable, probably all-too-rare win – and it’s a hell of a fun ballgame. Both these teams are floating up shots at an astonishing rate – Dallas is firing off 42.5 threes a game, the most in team history by 10 shots, and more than double the 19.9 it was shooting 10 years ago. Atlanta, same deal: its 37.8 threes attempted per night are its highest ever. That’s partly a result of the new NBA mantra – when in doubt, back up and shoot – and partly a result of two of the most prolific 3-point shooters in the league joining their rosters.

The Mavs’ postgame locker room is a grim place; the team knows it let one slip away, and it knows it’s not good enough to have games like that to spare. “We fell in love with one-pass shots, which was something we said we couldn’t get seduced into in this game, and our defense eroded,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said after the game. “They earned a great win, and we end up with a very bad loss.”

Owner Mark Cuban, stonefaced, grabs a drink from a cooler and leaves the silent locker room. Doncic spends some time talking with DeAndre Jordan, then sits by his locker, his midsection wrapped, checking his phone. Finally he speaks, and takes the burden on himself.

“We got to learn about this. We cannot lose games when we’re up by 26. We need to learn from that,” Doncic told Yahoo Sports. “Personally, I was selfish. I recognize it. We didn’t stick together as a team. We got to work on that.”

Still, Doncic drew praise from the elder statesman of the night. “Very confident player, very under control. You don’t see any nerves,” Carter told Yahoo Sports. “I don’t want to gas him up too much, we have to play him again, but he’s going to be a great player.”

Out on the court a few minutes earlier, Young was giving credit to the crowd and shaking off any attempt at a new nickname. (“Ice Trae” decorated his pink sneakers.) He looked out at the sold-out State Farm Arena and smiled, adding, “It’s just the beginning.”

He’s right. And what a hell of a beginning it was.
____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

More from Yahoo Sports:

• Report: NFL admits it missed crucial helmet hit on QB
• Mike Oz: Dodgers need a whole lot more than Machado
• Broncos send backup QB packing after arrest
• Jeff Passan: How Game 1 personified self-aware baseball