Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young steals ball from NBA referee after being ejected in Orlando Magic loss

Ben McClellan

The Nightly

2 Min Read

6 hours ago

Updated

6 hours ago

Trae Young stole the ball from a referee as he was ejected. Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck/Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images/Sipa USA

NBA star Trae Young has taunted a referee as he was ejected during Atlanta’s 120-95 loss to Orlando in their playoff play-in game today.

The Hawks now face a sudden death game after Aussie star Dyson Daniels’ team trailed at every break in the 25-point defeat.

Young had 28 points and six assists on 8-for-21 shooting before he was ejected with five minutes to go.

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His frustration with how the game was going finally boiled over with 4:47 left, when he earned a pair of technical fouls - one for rifling a chest pass at referee James Williams, the second moments later when he deflected the ball with his foot and then wouldn’t give it up promptly to referee Pat Fraher.

The antics are sure to draw the ire of NBA officials with a sizeable fine coming Young’s way.

Daniels had seven points and racked up 12 rebounds and 12 assists. He also got three steals.

Daniels became the youngest player to get more than 200 steals in a season and is one of the favourites to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The Hawks will play the winner of the Bulls-Heat play-in game tomorrow meaning Daniels and fellow Aussie NBA star Josh Giddey could clash.

Cole Anthony came off the Magic bench to shine with 26 points and six assists to lead the Magic to the win.

Paolo Banchero had 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Magic, and Wendell Carter Jr added 19 points and seven rebounds.

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Anthony Black also came off the bench and scored 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the Magic’s first appearance in a play-in game.

Earning the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed after a 41-41 regular season, the Magic will start their first-round play-off series at Boston on Monday.

Georges Niang scored 15 points and Onyeka Okongwu had 11 points and nine rebounds for the Hawks.

Banchero and Black produced most of the offence and the Hawks scored just two points in the final six minutes of the first quarter.

Anthony, who averaged 9.4 points in an injury-plagued season, made 10 of 17 shots, including 4-of-9 three-pointers.

With AAP