Hawks’ Trae Young ejected from crucial matchup for ‘making a mockery of the game’

The Orlando Magic secured a playoff spot with a win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday and did enough to see star sharpshooter Trae Young get ejected before the game was finished.

Young had 28 points and six assists in 40 minutes, but he was not around to see the game through. Young gave a strong pass to a referee after making a basket with 4:48 left in the game. The referee did not take too kindly to that and gave him a technical foul. 

Moments later, he deflected the ball with his foot and did not return it promptly to the referee.

He was tossed from the game from there. The NBA said he was tossed for “making a mockery of the game.”

Referee James Williams addressed the technical fouls.

“Trae Young received his first unsportsmanlike technical foul for throwing the ball at a game official,” he told a pool reporter. “He received his second unsportsmanlike technical foul for kicking the ball away and making a mockery of the game as we were attempting to shoot the free throw for the first technical foul and by rule when the player receives two unsportsmanlike fouls he’s ejected from the game,” he added.

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The Magic won 120-95 to clinch the No. 7 seed in the playoffs.

“Sometimes when I take my frustration out on the refs it’s not just for me,” Young said. “It’s for my teammates. I see Dyson Daniels going; he may not be a household name yet, but he deserves the same amount of respect as some of these other guys. If you see a foul, you should call a foul. That’s pretty much all it was for me.”

Wendall Carter Jr. led the Magic with 19 points. Orlando’s star forward Paolo Banchero added 17 points.

“It was a fun game, a big-time game, a unique type of challenge,” Banchero said. “I was interested to see how they were going to try to guard me. You could tell in the first quarter I was trying to get my teammates involved, moving the ball, and those guys got going. They carried us throughout the game.”

Orlando will take on the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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