The Rockets stayed unbeaten Monday night with a 120-110 win over the Hawks at Toyota Center. Alperen Sengun had 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, per ESPN. Sportsnet's recap adds that Kevin Durant scored 22. Yahoo Sports led with Atlanta's fourth quarter, saying the Hawks "fail[ed] to launch" and were "stifled" late.
The box score shows the game turned earlier than that. The teams were close through the first half, with Atlanta up 66-63 at the break. Houston then won the third quarter 28-19, and that was the largest quarter margin of the night. Atlanta scored 25 in the fourth to Houston's 29, so the Hawks lost the fourth quarter but never got back into the game. Houston's largest lead was 22, while Atlanta's was 6.
Rebounding was the biggest gap. Houston won the boards 52-35 and had 64 points in the paint to Atlanta's 56. The Hawks shot 42-of-98 (43%) and the Rockets shot 43-of-81 (53%). Houston also got to the line 32 times against Atlanta's 21. The Rockets turned the ball over 22 times, but Atlanta scored only 19 points off those. Sengun was 11-of-15 and added six steals. He also had six turnovers. Durant was 6-of-13 with 9-of-10 at the line, nine rebounds and four blocks.
Jalen Johnson led Atlanta with 21 points and nine rebounds, and CJ McCollum had 20 on 4-of-7 from three. The Hawks as a team went 11-of-39 from deep. Luguentz Dort was 0-of-5 from three, and Dyson Daniels scored four points on 2-of-8 shooting.
This was the second game in three nights between the teams. Houston also won Saturday's meeting in Atlanta, 121-114. Sengun is averaging 33.0 minutes this season and shooting 53.2%, including 1.7 made threes per game. Monday's shooting was in line with that. Durant has scored 22 or more in each of his last three games, including 30 against Dallas on Oct. 21.
Houston is 3-0 and on a three-game winning streak. Atlanta is 1-2, fourth in the Southeast, and has lost two straight since beating Orlando 132-125 on Oct. 21. The Rockets go to Milwaukee on Wednesday. The Hawks host Miami the same night, and then host Cleveland on Oct. 29.
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