Rockets, Hawks vie to remain undefeated in new season

The Atlanta Hawks will try to start the year with three wins for the first time in six seasons on Saturday night when they face the Houston Rockets in Atlanta's home opener.

The Hawks rolled over the Charlotte Hornets 128-81 on Friday and will try to go 3-0 for the first time since the 2020-21 team did it and ended up reaching the Eastern Conference final.

The Rockets also are undefeated, holding on to beat the San Antonio Spurs 114-110 on Friday. Houston hasn't started with three straight wins since 2017-18, the season the Rockets lost in the Western Conference final.

"We're excited," Atlanta's Jalen Johnson said. "We're excited to go play in front of our home crowd. We're looking to come out with the same energy on Saturday."

Atlanta has been scoring a lot of points -- an average of 130 in the first two games -- but has flourished because of its defense. Atlanta forced 14 turnovers and limited Charlotte to 43 points in the first half while taking a 68-43 halftime lead. The Hawks finished with 17 steals, created 25 turnovers and wound up setting a club record for the widest margin of victory (47 points).

"This game is just giving it to me, I'm not going to lie, I'm throwing it in my hands," said Atlanta's Dyson Daniels, who has 12 steals in two games. "I'm just trying to come out and be the best on defense and have that create our offense, so get out and run."

The Hawks have been led by Nickeil Alexander-Walker (an average of 22.5 points a game) and Johnson (19.5 ppg, 10.5 rebounds, seven assists) and newcomer Aaron Wiggins (17.5 ppg).

Houston, meanwhile, survived an intense battle on Friday with the rival Spurs. The key play came when 6-foot-7 Amen Thompson blocked 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama's potential game-tying drive to the basket with 0.6 seconds remaining.

"When Wemby caught the ball, I just thought he was going to be just tall and try to rise over the top -- and that's what he thought," Houston's Kevin Durant said. "But Amen is just a freak athlete. It's insane how he got up so quick to block that shot against the 7-4."

The Rockets had three players with 20-plus points against the Spurs: Alperen Sengun with 29, and Durant and Thompson with 20 apiece.

Durant has always been a matchup problem for the Hawks. In 34 career games against Atlanta, he is averaging 29.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.7 assists a game. He scored 31 and 25 points against Atlanta last season.

"We can look at this and get some film from it and see how we can get better," Durant said. "We've got another game in Atlanta tomorrow, so we can hopefully build on this."

The Rockets won both games against the Hawks last season, prevailing by 18 and 22 points in a pair of non-competitive contests. Houston has won four games in a row against the Hawks, including the last two in Atlanta. The team will play again on Monday in Houston to complete the season series.

The Rockets plan to rest Fred VanVleet on Saturday. The veteran missed last season with right ACL surgery and will sit out the second night of Houston's back-to-back set because of load management; he played 31 minutes and scored 14 points against the Spurs.

Steven Adams (right calf) was able to play almost nine minutes on Friday after being listed as questionable.