Lou Williams rewards Hawks’ confidence with big Game 4 starting in Trae Young’s place
for Atlanta’s 110-88 victory over Milwaukee in Game 4 that tied the Eastern Conference finals at 2-2.
With starting point guard Trae Young sidelined due to a bone bruise in his right foot, Williams got the start and scored a team-high 21 points and added eight assists, five rebounds and one steal.
prevented the Bucks from taking a 3-1 series lead.
“One thing that’s been steady since I’ve been here, this team has always been confident in their abilities, and that’s showed throughout the playoffs,” Williams said. “We’re enjoying the ride. We feel like we deserve to be here. We’ve earned the right to be here, and at the same time we’re enjoying it. Did I look ahead and say we can be a championship contender day one? Probably not. But we’re two wins away like everybody else, and we feel good about it.”
McMillan said he talked with Williams after the trade which sent Rajon Rondo from the Hawks to the Clippers.
“I talked to him about the role that Rondo was playing when he came here, and that was a role of mentoring Trae,” McMillan said. “He understood that role. He accepted that role. He knew that Trae is the future of this organization. He’s coming in to back him up. And he’s done a great job of mentoring Trae, talking about different situations, how to manage a game, different things that he can do. His minutes were really cut coming here. He was a 20-plus minute guy, and he only has about 15 — 10 to 15 minutes behind Trae.
“He really sacrificed that role to help this team, and he’s done a great job for us.”
Williams walked into his postgame press conference with a big, floppy bucket hat and 2019 bottle of red wine from Caymus Vineyards.
“I’m not even going to pretend I know what’s going on,” Williams said of the wine.
Hopefully he enjoyed it, because after Tuesday’s game, he deserved it.
Follow Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt.