James Young finding his scoring touch in Maine

After a few brief stints earlier this season, the Celtics sent James Young to the D-League for good in mid-March, and the rookie has been doing what he does best for the Maine Red Claws. On Friday, he scored 30 points on 11-for-22 shooting, including 6-for-14 from deep, in a 119-115 win at Texas, his second-highest scoring total in 16 D-League games.

Young has not been shy to let fly from beyond the arc, averaging 9.1 three-point attempts for Maine. More importantly, he's connecting on a solid 44.1 percent of those and 46.1 percent from the floor overall for an average of 26.1 points per game. Of course, we already knew he could score in bunches, but what will determine his NBA success will be his ability to do other things, mostly on the defensive end.

In that department, the jury is still out on Young. He's had some good rebounding games and is averaging 4.8 boards, but the D-League is not a big man's league and that number, like his 1.5 steals per game, likely won't translate to the NBA. As the Red Claws' primary scoring option, he also doesn't contribute much else to the offense, with just 2.1 assists and 2.6 turnovers per contest.

In any case, Young is obviously much better off playing over 33 minutes per game in Portland than languishing on the bench in Boston, and with the Celtics now at full health he should remain in Maine through the end of the season.

The Red Claws conclude the regular season on Saturday night in Iowa, having already clinched the Atlantic Division title. The game will determine their first-round playoff opponent: If they win they will eliminate Iowa and face Fort Wayne, but if Iowa wins and Fort Wayne loses to Sioux Falls on Saturday, it will be a Maine-Iowa rematch in the postseason.

You can watch all six of Young's three-pointers against Texas below:



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Image credit: Whitney Hayward/Portland Press Herald