By Canadian Press

Trae Young’s 38-point double-double leads Hawks past Raptors 125-104

Dec 15, 2023 | 7:02 PM

TORONTO — Trae Young scored 38 points and had 11 assists to lead the Atlanta Hawks past the Toronto Raptors 125-104 on Friday.

Young made three fewer three-pointers than the entire Raptors roster combined as Atlanta (10-14) snapped a five-game losing skid.

Bogdan Bogdanovic came off the bench with 20 points and six assists and Clint Capela earned a double-double with 18 points and 15 boards as the Hawks jumped over Toronto into 10th in the Eastern Conference.

Scottie Barnes’s 23-point performance led Toronto (10-15), while Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam had 15 points apiece.

The Raptors ended a four-game losing streak with a 135-128 win over Atlanta on Wednesday. 

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Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic said it’s “very hard” to win two consecutive games over the same opponent because they learn more from the loss than you do as the victor.

“We won but we were not perfect. There are definitely areas for us to improve and get better at,” said Rajakovic before the game. “We learned some things ourselves, so there is an adjustment piece to our game as well. 

“Your mentality has to be to go out there from the jump ball and be really aggressive, play with a lot of effort, play for each other and execute the game plan.”

Saddiq Bey made a driving layup ahead of the buzzer as Atlanta built a 30-24 lead with a 7-0 run to close out the first quarter. Capela was a dominant force in the paint for the Hawks in the opening period with 10 points and five rebounds.

Poeltl hit his sixth field goal of the game with just under a minute left in the first half to pull Toronto to within 10 points. Atlanta’s 59-49 lead heading into intermission was thanks largely to Bogdanovic, who came off the bench to score 13 in the quarter.

The Raptors turned over the ball nine times for 11 points in the first half to Atlanta’s five turnovers for five points.

Barnes sank a floater and drew the foul, sinking his one free throw, with one minute left in the third to bring Toronto to within nine points, but that was as close as the Raptors would get in the quarter. Young had 16 points in the third alone to power the Hawks to their 87-78 lead.

Montreal’s Chris Boucher had a one-handed dunk and drew a foul, hitting the free throw, two minutes into the fourth to pull Toronto to within six. Atlanta responded with an 18-4 run to pull ahead of the Raptors with a sizable 20-point lead.

Trailing by more than 20 points with two minutes left to play, Rajakovic sent out rarely used bench players such as Jalen McDaniels, Thaddeus Young, Garrett Temple and rookie Gradey Dick.

STARTER SIAKAM — Siakam surpassed Vince Carter for fifth on the Raptors’ all-time starts list. The 29-year-old Siakam has been in Toronto’s starting lineup 402 times, one more than Carter.

UP NEXT — Toronto’s four-game homestand continues on Monday as it hosts the Charlotte Hornets. The Hawks travel to Cleveland to face the Cavaliers on Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2023.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press