Trae Young knew he had to at least try and play in the game that could - and would - end the Atlanta Hawks' season. 

After missing the previous two games with a bone bruise on his right heel, the Hawks' star returned for Game 6 but was not his usual self in a 118-107 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. 

Though the 22-year-old star obviously was not at full strength, he knew there was no way he could stomach sitting out again. 

"I didn't want to have any regrets after tonight," Young told reporters. "I didn't want to go not play and think to myself all offseason if I could have been out there and played if I could have helped my team at all in any way, it would have hurt me.

"So just go out and just play and at least leave it all out there on the floor. That's all I could do."

Young managed to play 35 minutes but made just four of 17 shots from the field and finished with 14 points - less than half his 29.8 playoff average entering the game. 

Despite his physical limitations, he had to at least try to play, but he acknowledged after the game that the injury affected his form. 

"You know me, I don't use injury as an excuse," Young said. "For me, my bruise is on my heel, so like all my pushing off my right foot, there's not anything that could really damage it worse, but it was more pain tolerance and just fighting through the pain.

"When I was running, I knew it wasn't going to get worse, but I could feel -- you know what I'm saying? You could feel pain in it. That's all it was."

To Hawks interim head coach Nate McMillan, the fact that Young insisted on playing in Game 6 despite having no practice time since his injury said it all about his young star's mind-set. 

"The message was no regrets," McMillan said. "We don't want no regrets after this game tonight, and we leave everything we have out on the floor, and that's what I saw from Trae.

"The fact that he hasn't done anything on the floor since the injury, this was the first time that he has done anything live on the floor, so he was gassed."

That was evident as the game wore on, but Young has no doubt the unexpected run the Hawks made through the playoffs will serve them well in the future. 

"We've got the talent, and we've got guys that you see we can do it, and you see the flashes that we can do it," Young said. "It's just, it's hard. This s*** is hard. It's not easy.

"They've been here multiple times before and haven't been able to take that next step, and I think for us being able to go through this for a first time early, I mean, it's really good for us. I think it will only help us."