Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks just got thrown out of the game against the Indiana Pacers. Young was upset over an offensive foul call on a previous play and threw the ball at one of the referees. He didn't throw the ball to try to hit the referee, but he threw the ball with force, which always results in an ejection and a technical.
This is something that Atlanta needs to monitor as Trae Young now has 15 technical fouls on the season.
If he is to get one more, he will be suspended for a game. This is important for Atlanta given the fact that they're only one game ahead of the 10th-place Chicago Bulls and want to continue trying to solidify that seventh or eighth seed in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.
Trae Young and the Hawks are currently up on the Indiana Pacers, leading by four points in the third quarter.
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Atlanta Hawks without Trae Young
While Trae Young will likely understand what's at stake now for the remainder of the season, it's still something to keep in the back of their minds. Atlanta needs Young down the stretch and if they lose him, there's a good chance that they're not going to win that one game that he misses.
Atlanta has been brutal without him this season, sitting at just 2-5 in the seven games that he's missed. Any other loss at this point in the year could be detrimental to their playoff hopes, and he needs to realize that. He does often find himself arguing with referees about certain calls and that simply won't be the case in the remainder of the season.
It seems likely that Atlanta isn’t going to get more than a play-in spot this year, but the team still has an outside chance of getting to that sixth seed. It's going to be nearly impossible at this point as they’re 3.5 games behind the sixth-place Miami Heat, but we've seen crazier things happen in the NBA.
Even just getting the seventh seed at this point in the season could be huge for them. Having that play-in game at home versus away could be the reason why Atlanta wins or loses a game.
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