Who knew that Flip Saunders was a video game aficionado? He knows enough to use all the buttons on the controller, too, recognizing that the way Nick Young has started to play of late, it’s as if he can’t stop himself from frantically pushing the “X” button.
“As I told our guys, we get times where we play very individualistic,” Saunders said after a 99-92 loss to Atlanta on Saturday. “In the key part of the game, as I told Nick a couple of times, it was like PlayStation.”
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Young has averaged 20.8 points in the 26 games since Gilbert Arenas departed in December, emerging as a first-choice offensive weapon and forcing his way into the discussion of the NBA’s most improved player.
But lately he’s also forcing his game instead of letting open jumpers come to him in the rhythm of the Washington offense, shooting 41 percent or worse from the field in five of the last six games and missing five of six shots in the fourth quarter against the Hawks.
Set to become a restricted free agent this summer, Young knows that if he’s going to take the next step — making a case to be part of Washington’s long-term plans — he’s got to learn more than one “left-right-up-down square-circle-square” combination.
“I see teams keying in on me,” Young said. “I gotta find ways on how to get my other teammates involved in other ways of scoring because people are game-planning around me. That leaves players open.”
