Trae Young lights Madison Square Garden with 45 points in triumph over the NY Knicks

Point guard Trae Young lit Madison Square Garden Tuesday with 45 points to guide his Atlanta Hawks in an away win over the NY Knicks 117-111, in one of the four games of the day in the NBA.

Young added eight assists to his performance in his first match at the legendary New York installation since last year's playoffs.

Star Young scored seven three-pointers (21 points), including one that tied the game at 105 with 2:54 to play. He then assisted Serbian Bogdan Bogdanovic for a three-pointer lead and De'Andre Hunter hit another three-pointer to crown an 11-0 streak and put 113-105 on the board with 1:04 minutes left.

Serbian Bogdanovic added 32 points, the season high, for the Hawks, who are tenth in the Eastern Conference.

Canastero R.J. Barrett had 28 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks, who dropped to 30-42 to secure their eighth losing season in the last nine seasons.

The New York team's only winning record was when they were 41-31 last season to win the fourth playoff ticket for the Eastern Conference. They then fell to the Hawks in five games in the first round.

Alec Burks had 21 points for the Knicks, who played without Julius Randle due to pain in the right quadriceps tendon.

The Knicks won 34-30 after the first set but the Hawks went to the front of 64-58 at halftime. Bogdanovic had 15 points and Young 13 in the second quarter.

- Giannis punishes the Bulls -

In Milwaukee, Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 25 points and a whopping 17 rebounds on his return to action and champions Bucks extended their recent dominance over the Chicago Bulls with a 126-98 beating.

Antetokounmpo had missed the Bucks 138-119 defeat in Minnesota on Saturday due to pain in his right knee.

Now, Milwaukee played without All-Star forward Khris Middleton, who was dealing with pain in his left wrist.

“He fell in the Minnesota game, and he was quite sore and stiff, so we checked it out,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said of Middleton before the game.

“We feel it's short-term, but we'll see how it feels a day or two later,” the coach added.

Jrue Holiday had 27 points, the game's highest, along with seven assists, as the Bucks won for the 15th time in their last 16 games against the Bulls, including all three matches this season.

The Bulls' only victory during that period came in their end of the 2019-20 regular season, when the Bucks rested their starters because they were assured with the third seed for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference at the time.

Cuban-American Brook Lopez had 10 points and six rebounds in 24 minutes for Milwaukee after making his first start as a starter since the start of the season. The Cuban had come off the bench for the Bucks last three games after missing 67 games due to a back injury that required surgery.

Swiss Nikola Vucevic had 22 points for the Bulls, who opened a five-game tour one night after a 113-99 win over the Toronto Raptors. DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine each added 21 points for Chicago.

- Tuesday's results in the NBA:

Orlando a Golden State 94-90

Milwaukee a Chicago 126-98

- At stake:

Denver vs LA Clippers

meh/cl