WASHINGTON — The Washington Wizards labeled Thursday “Trae Day” to hype Trae Young’s debut game with the franchise.
Young lived up to the billing.
Young scored 12 points, grabbed two rebounds and dished out six assists in 19 minutes.
He was subbed out of the game with 2:57 remaining in the third quarter, having hit his minutes limit. The Utah Jazz were leading the Wizards 87-77 at the time. Utah ended up winning 122-112.
Young had not played since his trade from Atlanta to Washington in early January. During his absence, Wizards officials said Young was still recovering from a sprained MCL in his right knee and a right quadriceps contusion.
Young wasted no time affecting Thursday’s game when he scored his first bucket on the Wizards’ first possession of the night. Young, guarded by Cody Williams, dribbled toward the 3-point line as teammate Juju Reese set a pick on Williams. That left Young guarded by big man Kyle Filipowski, and Young sped past Filipowski for a driving layup that appeared effortless.
Young’s debut brought a buzz and excitement that has largely been absent this season to the Capital One Arena announced crowd of 17,689. When public-address announcer Mark Fratto introduced Young as a starter, with the lights in the arena turned down, many of the fans stood and cheered.
The crowd also cheered when Young touched the ball for the first time during the game and when Young ran to the scorer’s table to check back into the game late in the second quarter.
Extrapolating from Thursday’s game, what Young will mean to the Wizards on the court would be a fool’s errand. For one thing, in addition to Tre Johnson and Bilal Coulibaly, he started alongside a pair of inexperienced youngsters, two-way-contract players Leaky Black and Reese. The Jazz, meanwhile, were a shell of themselves; choosing to sit Keyonte George on the second night of a back-to-back, with draft positioning their goal, the Jazz’s starting five included Isaiah Collier, John Konchar, Williams, Ace Bailey and Filipowski.
Yet the Wizards already know Young’s strengths and weaknesses because they’ve been well documented. He should create open shots for his teammates and should make offense easier for many of the team’s young players.
Young opened the game guarding Konchar, a swingman who is more of a threat as a perimeter shooter than as a driver.
Young, on the other hand, can do both. He provided perhaps the Wizards’ highlight of the night late in the second quarter. With the ball on the left wing, he drove toward the hoop, faked a behind-the-back pass to the left corner and scored on a drive to the rim. That score cut Washington’s deficit to 59-44.
This story will be updated.