By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Starting the season at 14 wins and 20 losses, who would’ve thought that the Atlanta Hawks are now one series away from an NBA Finals appearance?
Spearheaded by their electric superstar Trae Young, the Hawks showed nerves of steel and took down NBA MVP candidate Joel Embiid and the no. 1 seed Philadelphia 76ers in a grueling Game 7, 103-96, to punch a ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Hawks showed they were ready for the spotlight and made the necessary adjustments against the 76ers gave in a physical 48-minute clash.
Embiid started hot and was unstoppable in the shaded lane despite facing numerous double teams.
Hawks’ top-scorer Young dealt with an early scoring drought but it was swingman Kevin Huerter who was ready to pick up the slack.
With Young struggling to get into his offense, Huerter was able to provide the necessary scoring and took advantage of his mismatch against Seth Curry to finish the game with 27 huge points.
The rubber match continued to be close until the last three minutes of the game but a deep three from Young and a turn-around hook shot from Huerter helped them pull away and add more cushion.
Danilo Gallinari then slammed the game-winning dunk off a Philadelphia turnover and finally called themselves as Eastern Conference finalists.
In a losing effort, Embiid still scored an emphatic 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while Curry was limited to 16 points.
