East Notes: Hawks, Trae Young, Bucks, Cavs

Hawks

Star guard Trae Young isn’t expected to miss any time after briefly exiting Wednesday’s game with a scratched eye. The Hawks host the Pelicans on Saturday.

“I think I’ll be able to play through it,” Young said, via Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s more just letting the swelling go down, but I’ll be able to play through it. Thankfully I get a couple days for it to kind of get better. I’ll probably wear goggles or glasses for some games, but it will be all right.”

Young added he just wants to be on the court, even if he’s not impactful as usual.

“I love to play,” he said. “Anytime I’m able to do that, I’m going to go out and try my best and play. Unless I literally cannot play, I’m not going to let my teammates down and sit out because I know I can be a presence on the floor, even if I’m just standing and getting everyone involved.”

• Guard Dejounte Murray may be emerging as a leader at crunch time, Williams wrote in a separate piece.
• The Hawks are handing out offensive and defensive player of the game awards after each outing, Williams detailed in another story.

Bucks

As of Saturday morning, the Bucks were the NBA’s lone unbeaten team, their 8-0 record marking the league’s best start since the 24-0 Warriors in 2014-15.

“I feel like we’re building the right habits, playing the right way, winning in different ways,” guard Jrue Holiday told reporters. “It feels good to be 8-0.”

The eight straight wins to open the season is also a franchise record.

“Great to be a part of it, for sure,” star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “You can never take it for granted. I’m very, very happy to be a part of it and being able to have a team that we’re able to start the season 8-0. But at the end of the day I’m happy that we are building good habits.

• Rookie guard MarJon Beauchamp scored a career-high 14 points in Friday’s win over the Timberwolves, just his fifth NBA game. “He’s just kind of getting a better feel, getting more confident. We’re getting more confident in him,” coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters. “He’s just got a competitiveness, a pureness that I think his teammates enjoy him and are excited for him.”
• Forward Alex Antetokounmpo is thrilled to be back with the Wisconsin Herd of the G League, according to a feature from Owczarski wrote.

Cavaliers

Center Jarrett Allen gave his finest performance of the early season in Friday’s win over the Pistons, as we wrote about here. It came at a perfect time, as the Cavs were without All-Star guards Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland.

“He was a force in the middle of the floor. They had no answer for him,” Bickerstaff said, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “It was intentional. He went out to prove a point. We told him before the game that we were going to follow him, and I thought he took the challenge and imposed his will on the game.”

The Cavs truly did get contributions from everyone, sort of the secret sauce behind their success.

“We played a complete game tonight,” Bickerstaff said, via Fedor. “That’s one of the things we have been talking about is no matter who is on the floor, we need to live up to our standards. I thought our guys took that to heart tonight. We played Cleveland Cavaliers basketball all night.”

• For more out of Cleveland, check out our latest post, Soaring Cavs rise yet again.