NEW YORK – As the final seconds melted away, Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young knelt on the New York Knicks’ midcourt logo at Madison Square Garden – where he had inflicted so much pain and endured so much scorn – and pretended , as if he was rolling dice as he and his team punched their ticket to Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinals this weekend.

Buoyed by a furious second-half run, Young and the Hawks pushed past the Knicks 108-100 on Wednesday night, the latest example of the three-time All-Star having a little fun in New York.

Young and his club eliminated the Knicks from the playoffs in 2021 on the Garden Floor, with Young punctuating the victory by taking a bow at center court and waving goodbye to the crowd. He came up with a different celebration before Wednesday night’s victory.

“We’re going to Vegas, so I had to do that,” he said of rolling the dice.

Young added: “I planned this with my little brother a few days ago. We had talked about it and I knew what I was going to do.”

Knicks star Jalen Brunson didn’t begrudge Young his celebration, simply saying, “We should win the game if we don’t want him to do that.”

De’Andre Hunter scored 24 points and Jalen Johnson had 21 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists for the Hawks, who will face the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday for a spot in the NBA Cup title game.

Young, who finished the game with 22 points, 11 assists and 5 rebounds, was a huge catalyst for the Hawks in the second half. The Knicks (15-10) had led most of the game and were up 66-62 midway through the third period when Young scored eight straight points, including 3 points on consecutive possessions, to lift Atlanta (14-12). gave ) the lead.

The Hawks stepped up their defense after halftime and forced the Knicks into three violations in 24 seconds. Guard Dyson Daniels, arguably the league’s most disruptive defender in the first third of the season, grabbed Brunson and held him to 14 points – his second-lowest total of the season – on 15 shot attempts. The repeated stops allowed Atlanta to come out and run in transition, allowing the Hawks to outscore New York 61-46 over the final two quarters.

The other big factor was on the glass, where Atlanta grabbed 22 offensive rebounds, including 14 in the second half. On one possession in the fourth quarter, the Hawks suffered four missed shots in a row, which they took advantage of with a layup from Onyeka Okongwu.

“You take the soul of a team with you, and we felt like we did that tonight,” said veteran Hawks center Clint Capela.

Capitalizing on the Hawks’ routine of playing music by an artist from the city they had just won in, Capela belted out a song by rapper 50 Cent in the Garden’s locker room after the win. The center said the manner of the win, particularly the vice-like defense in the second half, showed Atlanta can be a force as its athletic young players continue to develop.

“I think it shows us that we can be a really special team when we can prevent multiple possessions like that. We’re getting better in terms of our rhythm and some of our new guys are starting to really gain confidence.” Capela said of the Hawks, who face the Celtics, Cavaliers and Knicks – three of the top four teams in the East – in this year’s Cup. have defeated.

The end of the game couldn’t have been more different than the beginning. The Hawks, who dictated the tempo in the final, crucial minutes, seemed to get what they wanted when the Knicks used a blitz to force the ball out of Young’s hands. Atlanta played these possessions perfectly, scoring a total of five alley-oop dunks in the final six and a half minutes of the game; Three of them were supported by Young.

It was a complete reversal from the opening minutes of the game, when the Hawks – who use four young rotation players, each under the age of 25 – looked out of shape and quickly fell behind, 11-2. Not long after, the scoreboard at the Garden went blank, leaving fans and players alike in the dark about the current tally.

“I thought we were a little nervous early in the game,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “Someone mentioned to me that the scoreboard wasn’t working at the beginning, and maybe that was a good thing.”