Sharpshooter Young (3 of 11 from the field) disappears again as Heat applies pressure

Atlanta Hawks All-Star guard Trae Young has been flipping furiously through self-help books in this series with the Heat. “How do I reduce my anxiety?” “How do I find balance?” “How do I get more space in my life?” Finally, it seemed, he just chucked the self-help bromides in the garbage and surrendered to the suffocating Miami defense.

Young, whose deftness and cleverness with the ball has sliced up NBA defenses for four seasons, took one measly shot in the lane Sunday night. That’s it. He was reduced to chucking three-pointers from out near the halfcourt logo and it did not go well for him, or his team.

Young made 3 of 11 field goal attempts — 3 of 10 from beyond the three-point arc — and finished with nine points as Miami made off with a 110-86 win in Game 4. The Heat leads the best-of-7 series three games to one because they have held Young to 16 points per game (12 under his season average) and forced him to shoot just 21 percent from beyond the three-point arc (7 of 33).

“I haven’t been guarded like this in a long… obviously, you get guarded like this every now and then, but consistently since like high school,” Young said. “Obviously, it’s way better competition so it’s hard to score a lot more through double-teams and face guards at this level. It’s a challenge for me. I gotta learn how to fight through it and make it easier for myself and for my teammates. I’ll figure it out. That’s my plan.”

On some possessions, Young seemed almost resigned to being made irrelevant. The Heat stayed in front of him and cut off drives, and there were possessions he gave up the ball… and watched from near midcourt. Who could blame him? There was no space for him to work and his teammates struggled to make shots. Atlanta made 40 percent of its field-goal attempts.

“You see that they have five people in the paint when I have the ball,” Young said. “They’re doing a great job of showing help and not letting me get into the paint.

“We gotta do a better job of figuring out how to get some more open looks and get them off me early. I don’t want to force it.”

Atlanta’s veteran center Clint Capela said, like it or not, the 23-year old Young is still on the NBA learning curve. This is just Young’s second season of playoffs, and he is not groomed yet for the role of carrying a team through this kind of adversity.

“He’s just trying to figure it out,” Capela said.

The Hawks needed to do something radical in this series with Young hemmed in. Something radical would have been to abandon their typical substitution patterns and leave the hot-shooting swing man De’Andre Hunter in the game in the first quarter.

Hunter came out on fire sinking three three-pointers and a contested baseline jumper, all in the game’s first 5½ minutes. He had 11 points and Atlanta led, 16-12. Hunter left the game and then took just four more shots until the end of the third quarter. The Hawks trailed by then 80-61.

“Coach’s decision,” said Hunter with a shrug when asked about leaving the game and his hot hand with it on the court. He finished with 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting.

Atlanta coach Nate McMillan said his squad settled too early in many possessions for low-percentage shots. When Young was forced to give up the ball too many quick shots followed, McMillan said.

“Basically, they kept us on the perimeter,” McMillan said. “We really wasn’t able to get in the paint. Only 26 points in the paint. We settled a lot early in the first half with perimeter jump shots as opposed to attacking the pressure.

“With them playing small ball, it gave them more pressure out there on the floor.. to pick Trae up the entire night. We’ve got to do a better job of attacking that pressure and not playing on our heels.”

McMillan said the Hawks were too motionless on offense and let Miami dictate.

“You got to move their defense,” McMillan said. “If you’re just trying to play against their switching (defense) you’re playing into their hands. You got to get the ball reversed to the weak side and attack their close outs. They were switching and we went into isolation mode. I thought we settled.”