The Hawks Will be Tested

The Atlanta Hawks will be tested over the next two games. They travel back home tonight for the State Farm Arena home opener against the Houston Rockets. And then they go on the road to face the Rockets in their own building just two days later. Welcome back to Hawks Digest My name is Michael Kabrinsky And as we dive into today's video, we're going to be previewing the Atlanta Hawks' next two games. They both come against the Houston Rockets in a home-and-home series. You've got tonight in Atlanta, and then you've got tomorrow night. uh sorry not tomorrow night monday night in uh houston in houston at the toyota center so a home and home series here for the hawks and it's going to be against one of the upper echelon teams in the western conference the houston rockets are just coming off a victory uh over the san antonio spurs 114 to 110 and you've also got the hawks coming off against uh coming off against a dominant blowout victory last night against the against the charlotte hornets and that that game what was insane by the way if you missed it go ahead and check out chris uh chris's video from last night really breaking down the hawks hornets game a historic victory for the hawks the largest margin of victory in franchise history 128 to 81 but if you want to hear more about that game definitely go ahead and check out chris's video once you are finished with this one but before we get all into the specifics of previewing tonight's game and monday's i've got to tell you about today's video sponsor and that is going to be our friends over at Kalshi and on Kal shi you're trading directly against other users it's not the house like other traditional sports books you're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of different events across sports politics even the weather and with the nba season going right on w nba finals going nfl season is in full swing it's a perfect time to to join Kalshi as well but i want to focus on tonight's game uh for this video and right now Calshi has the Hawks trading at a 52% chance to win the game over the Houston Rockets obviously putting the Rockets here at 48% and both of these teams come in 2-0 to to this game so great starts for both squads and even though the Rockets might be more of a quote-unquote contender to start the season they will be missing two key pieces which we'll get to a bit later in this video so that that brings them down a peg just a bit and the Hawks being at home their home opener they're gonna have a lot of energy in the building it's probably going to be packed because so many people are probably going to be downtown already with the WNBA finals playing earlier today so uh with if that's the case then they're gonna have a big home court advantage here for the Hawks hopefully they can take care of business against the Rockets tonight but if you do think they will if if you think the Hawks are going to take care of business against the Rockets tonight uh with the Hawks you can trade $25 and turn that $25 into $46.50 if the Hawks do come away with the victory and once again after you go after you go ahead and click off this video make sure uh to use the link in the description and the pinned comment use code digest nba and you're going to get 55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first 25 on Calshi so make sure to go ahead and check out Calshi after this video and especially if you're interested in trying out and once again thank you to Calshi for sponsoring today's video all right with with not with without further ado let's get into this let's get into this matchup And one of the first things I want to talk about in this matchup is going to be Jalen Johnson, because on both ends of the floor, I think he can have a very, very different role. Defensively, the Rockets can cause a lot of mismatch problems. You have the length of Kevin Durant. Obviously, he can put the ball on the floor. He can shoot from anywhere in the gym. At 6'11", he's a ridiculous scorer. Then you've also got a man, Thompson, who's a ridiculous athlete. He's a great slasher, unbelievable defender. And, you know, he's not as great of a shooter. But he's a real, real threat off the dribble. And defensively, I wonder how the Hawks are going to match up here. Are they going to put Jalen Johnson on Kevin Durant? I think that could be a possibility. And I think Jalen Johnson has had a pretty solid start defensively in 2026-27. But we saw last season, there were definitely times where he wasn't locked in defensively. There were times when people got a lot of back cuts. or, yeah, he just didn't have a great defensive year, I thought, last season. So for Jalen, if he is guarding Kevin Durant, I think there's going to need to be a different level of aggression, different level of locking in mentally to try to slow down Kevin Durant because really, Durant, there's no stopping him. He's just going to rise up over the top of you a lot of times just with how skilled he is, And he just needs that little bit of space to get the shot off. But if Jalen Johnson is guarding KD, make sure to try to stay in front of him. Just make him take tough shots. Make him take tough jump shots. Not a lot of easy open threes. Not a lot of easy drives to the lane. That's all you can ask for. Make life tough on KD. And speaking of KD, I do want to talk about him right now. Because for those who don't know, Kevin Durant was pretty much the first player I ever watched when I was really young, going up and liking basketball. He's the reason I love basketball, honestly. And so I'm going to be covering the game tonight. It's going to be pretty cool to watch KD live in the season home opener for the Hawks here tonight. But for Durant, one of the things that he can be prone to is some turnovers when you double. Now, the problem is the Rockets do have a lot of other weapons and a lot of other great passers. I mean, Thompson and Alperen Sengun specifically, who can punish the Hawks if they send doubles at KD. So I'm interested to see what Quinn Snyder is going to throw at Durant, how they try to plan to slow him down, make life tough on him, because he's such a gifted scorer and can score at all three levels that you just need to kind of game plan differently for him. And I'm going to be keeping a close eye tonight on how the Hawks try to approach that for sure. And one of the things, one of the ways that they could approach that is by putting Dyson Daniels on Kevin Durant. Now, if this happens, there's going to be a lot of cross-matching because Dyson Daniels, yes, elite defender, what he did against the Houston Rockets, what he did against the Charlotte Hornets, excuse me, last night was insane. Seven steals, obviously ridiculous, ridiculous defensive performance. And, you know, if he was around the ball, he was getting his hands on it, deflection steals all over the place. But if he's guarding Kevin Durant, Durant's going to have about four inches of height on Dyson, so there's going to be chances for him to rise up over the top. But almost more importantly, if Dyson Daniels is guarding Kevin Durant, who else is going to guard Amen Thompson? I think you put Ausar Thompson, no question, but Amen Thompson is really strong, really fast, has a really solid handle. His slashing to the rim is otherworldly, to be honest with you. just the level of athlete he is is absurd so if Dyson Daniels is guarding Kevin Durant who guards Amen Thompson, Michael Alexander Walker, and CJ McCollum are probably too small to guard him Amen is really strong as well and fast so he's kind of gonna bully right through them that would honestly create a lot of problems defensively so maybe you put Jalen Johnson on a man Thompson but even a man Thompson is gonna run around I think even more than Kevin the ring so it's gonna fall on Dyson Daniels it's gonna fall on Jalen Johnson I think to be really good defensively in this game I think both of those guards both of those guys will guard one of KD and Amen and we'll see which way Quinn Snyder plays it but either way both of these guys have to be on their A game defensively tonight because this guy right here if you let him get into the paint it could be a long night for Atlanta's defense if he gets to the paint he's such a good finisher great passer and i think for Amin Thompson if he if he has a couple easy buckets early the game opens up so much for him just because the hawks have to account for his drives they have to account for Sengun's post-ups and they have to account for Kevin Durant's just pure shot making and scoring and that is a lot a lot to take care of if you're the hawk so you don't want um Amin Thompson Alperen Sengun and Kevin Durant all three of them having a great game and to be honest that's kind of what they did against the San Antonio Spurs in their 114 to 110 victory last night you had Sengun with 29 7 and 7 Kevin Durant 27 and 6 really efficient nights from all all three of these guys Amin Thompson 20, 10, and 4. He also had two steals and two blocks. And Sengun also had a block in there. All three of these guys are really, really great games offensively against the Spurs. But if you look here, there's a key advantage for the Hawks here tonight. Look at the minutes that all of these guys played for the Rockets. 35 minutes for Sengun. 36 for KD. 36 for MN. 31 for Fred VanVleet. 31 for Jabari Smith Jr. and specifically for Fred VanVleet and also Steven Adams um it's because Steven Adams did play eight minutes in this in that game last night but both of these guys are probably going to miss tonight's game versus the Hawks because the Rockets and Ime Udoka before the season started they said that VanVleet and Steven Adams the plan is to rest them on second half of back-to-backs so you've got VanVleet probably resting tonight Marcus Smart probably plays ahead of him if Steven Adams is tonight you probably got Clint Capela former hawk obviously uh going to be in there as the backup center to Alperen Sengun so the rockets are missing two key guys here in their rotation and that's why i think you had uh alhoun over there having uh the hawks has more more of a chance to win this game as some people might think that's just on the surface but i mentioned the hawks have a significant advantage here and and that was in the box score and specifically in the minutes because when the hawks blew the doors off the charlotte hornets last night Jalen Johnson only 28 minutes Nicky Alexander Walker 27 DJ McCollum 21 Dyson 23 Onyeka 21 Aaron Wiggins 21 Luke Dort 18 Joc Landell 18 Kingsley Fleming 24 like these nobody played over 30 minutes because of how much garbage time there was in the fourth quarter and that's a crazy stat line by the way look look everybody in this game was a positive and the plus minus for the Hawks that is absolutely ridiculous you rarely ever see that but the Hawks have a significant rest advantage here that they didn't have to play a tight game in the fourth quarter like the Spurs did or sorry like the Rockets did in their four-point victory against the Spurs so that is a huge deal and you know I think it was really smart for Quinn Snyder to take his guys out early in the fourth quarter to give them as much rest as possible as possible on the first night of a back-to-back and the first back-to-back of the season so anytime you can get rest right there is going to be an advantage so with that we're going ahead and close out today's video guys let me know in the comments below what are you looking forward to seeing in the home opener what are you most looking forward to see in this Houston Rockets matchup how do you think the Hawks will fare against the Rockets team that is really looking to contend for a deep playoff run in the west it should be an exciting exciting two games for sure with that we are going to head and close out this video don't forget to like comment and subscribe on your way out and as always we appreciate the support over here at Hawks Digest thanks again for watching and we'll see you in the next one peace