Atlanta point guard Trae Young played about 20 minutes in his return to action Thursday in the Hawks’ 133-126 loss against the Charlotte Hornets.
It was Young’s first game since he went down with a right MCL sprain on Oct. 29. He scored eight points on 3-of-8 shooting and 10 assists.
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Young was a full participant in practice Wednesday, his second practice back with the Hawks after scrimmaging with their G League affiliate earlier this week.
“It’s my knee, something that had to take a little more time than some other injuries … I feel good,” Young said Tuesday, via ESPN. “[My conditioning is] going to get better as you play. They wouldn’t even allow me to come back or even be close to coming back if my conditioning wasn’t right or close to it.”
Young suffered an MCL sprain in his right knee during the team’s win against the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 29, and he hasn’t played since. That was just the team’s fifth game of the year. The Hawks went 13-9 without him over the 22 games that he missed.
Young averaged 24.2 points and a career-high 11.6 assists per game, which led the league, last season while earning his fourth All-Star nod. The 27-year-old is in the fourth year of a five-year, $215 deal with the Hawks this fall. He was eligible for a four-year extension, but a deal wasn’t done in time before training camp.
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The Hawks entered Thursday’s game in North Carolina with a 15-12 record. The team has not made the playoffs since the 2023 campaign.
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