Trae Young said TD Garden's expletive chants were sign of 'total ...

BOSTON — As the noise level inside TD Garden reached its crescendo, Trae Young caught the inbounds pass from Saddiq Bey with 7.5 seconds left, jogged the ball up the floor, sized up Jaylen Brown, and knocked down a deep stepback 3-pointer.

The clutch bucket put Atlanta up by two with 1.8 seconds remaining, and the Hawks were able to hold on for a 119-117 win in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round.

By this point, Celtics fans were on round two of their “[Expletive] Trae Young chants.” The first murmurs came from the balcony after Young drew an offensive foul on Brown in the first half. The second stream of chants at the end of the game was much louder, as were the cries of “overrated!”

None of that stopped Young from scoring a game-high 38 points, notching 13 assists, and forcing the Celtics to return to Atlanta for Game 6 at State Farm Arena on Thursday.

“When people do that, I think that’s just total respect,” Young said after the game. “They ain’t just doing that to anybody, you know what I’m saying? I’ve been owning the moment my whole life. This is what I do. I’m not afraid. I’ve worked too hard to be afraid of the moment.”

There was a coolness to the way Young approached the moment, Hawks coach Quin Snyder said.

“You could tell,” Snyder said. “If you look in his eyes, there was a calm. Sometimes that happens in the middle of a storm.”

The Celtics had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, and the TD Garden crowd grew louder with desperation as Boston proceeded to blow it.

Still, Young said the atmosphere doesn’t compare to Madison Square Garden when the Hawks beat the Knicks in 2021.

“It didn’t feel like the Knicks series,” Young said. “In the Knicks series, it started with like 10 minutes in the first quarter. It was a lot different tonight.”

Now, the series shifts to Atlanta where Dejounte Murray will be back in the Hawks’ lineup after serving a one-game suspension for bumping a game official.

“I FaceTimed him as soon as I got in the locker room,” Young said. “I FaceTimed DJ and told him to be ready. I told him before the game we were going to take care of business so we can play in Atlanta. Can’t wait to see everybody in Atlanta.”

John Collins chipped in 22 points for Atlanta and hit four of his nine 3-pointers. Bogdan Bogdanović added 18 points. The Hawks survived a game where the Celtics shot 53 percent from the field as a team.

“I’m just really proud of our guys and the way we continued to compete throughout the entire game,” Snyder said. “We finally got over the hump. Trae put us on his back in the 4th quarter and I think he’d be the first person to tell you this was about our team, which it was. We got contributions across the board in lots of different ways.”