Trae Young threw the sweetest seven against the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.

Young lived up to his reputation as a big-city villain in his recent upset at Madison Square Garden, posting a double-double with 22 points and 11 assists for his Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Cup quarterfinals. Atlanta won the game with a final score of 108-100 and secured a ticket to the semifinals in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon, where they will face the Milwaukee Bucks for further season glory (4:30 p.m. ET, TNT).

Harassed by Manhattan’s taunts as the clock ticked toward zero Wednesday, Young celebrated his well-deserved Vegas vacation by standing on the Knicks’ center court emblem and mimicking a dice roll.

“We’re going to Vegas, so I had to do this,” Sin City resident Young said, according to ESPN’s Chris Herring. “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.”

Wednesday’s win was just Young’s seventh regular-season triumph over the Knicks in 21 games. However, his reputation as a Knick-killer has proven long-lasting since his establishment in the opening round of the 2021 postseason: in five games, Young spoiled the Knicks’ first playoff appearance in eight years with 29.2 points. He delivered 9.8 assists and topped it off with a tally of 36 in the decisive game at MSG.

Since that series, Young has been enshrined in metropolitan minds, prompting chants of “F*** Trae Young” at MSG and other New York sports venues. He certainly added fuel to Wednesday’s verbal fire: A personal 8-0 run in the third quarter officially rounded off Atlanta’s comeback from a deficit of as many as 12.

Although Young had previously expressed reluctance to reprise the role of big-city villain, he preceded his anger in Las Vegas with a taunting leap across the court as Atlanta (14-12) took control of the game in the second half . With his own shots as well as those from his assists and rebounds, Young was involved in 24 of the Hawks’ 34 points during this period.

In the aftermath, Young insisted that his connection with Knicks fans was a “love-hate relationship.”

“I got a lot of love and a lot of hate from them,” Young said in his postgame interview with ESPN’s Katie George. “But I also got a lot of love from them. It’s respect,”

While using a host’s logo as a celebratory stage has been a problem in college football of late, the Knicks were as gracious to Young’s imaginary role as they could be in a loss.

“We should win the game if we don’t want him to do that,” Brunson said, according to SNY’s Ian Begley.

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