Houston Rockets vs Atlanta Hawks Full Game Highlights | Oct 16, 2025 NBA Preseason TODAY
career all eight seasons here in Atlanta. But they and he feel that this might be his best roster ever. Here’s Risha. Alexander Walker up top guarded by Reed Shepard on the go screen action. It’s Young the Law. But Kongu had it knocked away. Great weak side help from Jeff Green. Tim. Yeah, that’s really nice design that set something they wanted to get into immediately, but that is really alert on the weak side to defend the rim. Holiday’s jumper comes off to Crawford. Another opportunity. Holiday tease up another one. That one rattles halfway down and out again. Atlanta looking to play with pace like a lot of other teams. And Alexander Walker cashes out. And that’s specifically what Quinn Snder talked about before the game. You’re going to see their offense this year, a lot of advanced passes. They want to take advantage of the legs that they have to get out in the open floor. Trey Young with a nice crosscourt find. The buzz word for the Hawks offensively is multiple. Here’s Reed Shepard against the Kong Woo. Had it knocked away and Reed Shepard took it back and raises up. Little moment of atonement for Reed Shepard. He’s on the board. Three Shepard of course along with Ahmed Thompson looking to be a part of the regular rotation in particular Tim as a starting point guard in the absence of Fred Van Bleet who’s out with a torn ACL. Yeah, they’re trying to figure it out and it’s going to be probably different guys on different nights right now. It’s offense runs the best with Fred Vanble not out there. for Reed Shepard number three pick in the draft a year ago but he went to a team with a lot of expectations to win immediately which meant not the consistent run that a lot of guys get their rookie year he’s looking to take a big step forward in year two they talked about his body transformation added some muscle to his upper body that’s going to help him defensively played in 52 games as a rookie a season ago averaged under 20 points per game and five assists in some of his performances Bed Bleet sideline. Here’s Green out top. Hands it off to Reed Shepard. And Shepard misses. Trey Young with the cross. Had an notion inside for Porzingis. Extra pass. Had it kicked away by one of the Rockets. And James Caper says it’ll stay at this end. It’ll be Atlanta basketball. Well, I’m looking forward to watching the pairing of Porzingis and Young. As we all know that Young is one of the best ball handlers and pick and roll actions in the entire league. And Chris Depp’s Porzingis represents a guy that gives you three or four different ways that he can attack in that type of action. So, Trey Young has a weapon now at his disposal, which is going to make his life a lot easier with less traffic in ball screen. Alexander Walker blew a tire gets it to Porzingis. Five of the shot clock. They got to get busy. Young Aki switched out onto him and the Rockets with a good defensive stop. Keep in mind folks that Houston was the number four defensive rated team in the league a season ago. Crawford on the drive. Oh, a little jelly at the rim but couldn’t convert. Reach Alexander Walker had it knocked away out of bounds. It’ll be Hawks basketball baseline out of bounds to end. Um I don’t know that you would have said that about them watching him a year ago. I think Quinn Snder wants to take advantage of his personnel and that means get out and force the issue early. Right now it’s Houston with numbers. Crawford missed the layup off the lob. Hustled to get it back though. Holiday defers to a Kogi for three and a Congu clears. Alexander Walker part of that Minnesota team a season ago that made it to the Western Conference Finals in back-to-back years. And that’s what Aki does best. As if the Rockets didn’t have enough wonderful defenders able to convert Tim at the other end. I mean, we’re not going to see five plays all year made on the perimeter defensively as good as the one that Ki just made. That’s such a difficult thing to time up blocking a three, then run it down and convert yourself in the open floor. Beautiful. Jeff Green off the mark and rebounded by Atlanta. Tied at four, just underway [Music] on the pick and pop. Porzingis defers to Young. Young with the long three, laces it and Trey Young on the board. Shot 35% from deep a season ago. And that’s Chris Porzingis playing nice with his new teammates because he wanted to lace that one up, but he saw Trey Young one more pass on the wing and he made the decision. Holiday with the drive by and a slick finish. Houston back to within one. Young. Corzingis for three and Reed Shepard with the rebound. Good pace to this game for both teams. Ai on the drive draws the foul on Reese and he’ll go to the free throw line for a couple of shots. Explain to me how tough it is to block a shot like this straight up. You’ve got to time this either going to foul him. He doesn’t do either. And then on top of it, he picks up the loose ball and gets himself an open court layup. That is just exceptional work by Aki defensively. Knocks down the first free throw. Ai signing a one-year vet minimum deal with the Rockets during the offseason. Houston big game hunting this year. Back after this. One of the reasons why they’re just so excited about this group they’ve put together here in 2025. A group with a lot of potential. And Quinn Snder tasked with realizing that potential. Atlanta down by one here early in the first. Great pin by Porzingis. Got blocked by Aki. Wow. Josh Aki with a te interior defense and punching it home on the baseline. Well, it looked like Kristoff Porzingis had the advantage on that. The pass didn’t come in clean. It allowed Kogi to make that defensive play and then a beautiful attack offensively off the miss. Stays out of bounds. It’ll be coming back the other way. Houston basketball. Yeah, this entry pass doesn’t come in clean. He gets to use his quickness against all that size. Get around the side, get the deflection, and then off and running. Jeff Green off the elbow, hands it off to Shepard who rejects the screen. Back out to the ageless wonder, Jeff Green. 39 years old, invariable and inex in inexraable, still at it. One of only four players from the 2007 draft class. Still playing. Crawford raises up. Blocked cleanly by Porzingis. Ai, why not got it? Josh Aogi says, “Hey, listen. Kevin Durant’s not here tonight. There’s some extra jacks, Tim, to go around, right? Hey, look, I remember those nights in the league when the star player wasn’t playing. I’d get a little extra, get my shoulder a little extra loose, two extra looks, and a coach, look, honestly, when you come out, make a couple defensive plays the way that he has. And then it leads to a layup and a dunk. I mean, your Knight’s kind of set up now offensively, and that’s why he shot that three so effortlessly and with so much confidence, he’s already seen the ball go in twice. Josh Aogi, if he hits one of these free throws, will be in double digits already. And we have barely traversed six minutes if at all in the first quarter of this basketball game. Knocks down the first eight. Let’s take a look at the upcoming national TV schedule in the NBA. Tuesday on NBC and Peacock, Rockets at Thunder at 7:30 Eastern, followed by Warriors Lakers at 10. Then next Friday on Prime, Celtics at Knicks 7:30, followed by Timberwolves at Lakers at 10. Next Saturday on NBA TV, Thunder at Hawks at 7:30. For more on these games, please go to NBA.com or visit the NBA app. Reese Shay that time saw all of that open floor off the miss free throw was able to just take that thing coast to coast. You see some of the speed and athletic ability. A deep three by Reed Shepard who shot over 50% as a rookie from downtown with Kentucky. Porzingis with head of steam onto Alexander Walker. Here’s Luke Canard who checked in. Great move on Green by Porzingis to draw the foul. Nice little ISO at the nail there by the Hawks. A really nice flash from the weak side to the middle of the floor. And Porzingis is one of those guys you’ve got to honor that pump fake because he’s already seven on that. He did it very effectively. Took his time and now he’s going to earn two freebies. Porzingis a season ago averaged about 20 a game with the Boston Celtics. He really sold this fake well. Yeah, even to a vet like Jeff Green. Jeff knows better and as soon as he got in the air I guarantee you Jeff Green was saying, “Oh man, I went for it.” But you don’t have a choice because if you don’t try to get in the air then that’s just going to be a very simple basically a free throw for Porzingis from the foul line. He comes into preseason for the Hawks in very great fitness. He played for Latvia in the Euro basket competition this past summer. It was actually in his hometown over in Latvia. Davidson checked into the ball game formerly of the Celtics and he turns it over. Alexander Walker Reach who also was a member of France in Eurob basket lays it home. Matthews out top. Here’s Davidson. Rockets up by one. into the corner. Matthews on the drive. Crawford from deep. Knocks it home. Crawford, former member of Sacramento Kings and the Stockton Kings. Makes it 17-13 for the Rockets. I tell you what, you know, you don’t have Houston’s top six guys out here tonight, but you can see the defensive effort. It’s a non-negotiable for Eudoka. It doesn’t matter who’s out there for Trey Young really as far as just your individual game is to just be more efficient. And I think the shooting they’ve added around him with Porzingis, Luke Canard, Nquille Alexander Walker, it’s just going to create better spacing, which means less traffic. And for a smaller guard like Trey Young, I just think that improves his efficiency. Things looking up for the Hawks. As for Jaylen Johnson, had a great summer. Of course, his season was truncated by that shoulder injury that he suffered. He was playing outstanding basketball, folks. On track perhaps to become the most improved player of the year. Alexander Walker with a nice drive for the bucket. But those two guys right there, that’s an interesting pairing. And Johnson is, boy, he looks the part, doesn’t he, Tim? Oh, he absolutely does. And you know, you forget this is a guy who came into the league and was mainly just, you talked about his athletic ability. Jaylen Johnson is nice job again by Atlanta attacking early. This is a guy that averaged 10 rebounds a game last year before he shut it down with that torn labroom. So really it’s analyzing talent. Uh it’s going to be exciting to see Atlanta at full strength as this season starts. Guy that’s already been taken care of financially. Reed Shepard with a slick midi knocks it down and he looks very confident out there. He looks good and actually right now and it’s very early one one year under his belt and and now we’re in the preseason of year two. He’s more comfortable with that type of shot than he is with some of the three-point shots that he gets that are good looks. If he wants to earn more minutes, he’s got to be more consistent with his deep shooting. But he has great elevation in the mid-range area of the floor. Pretty comfortable with the handle here, too, Tim. Handle’s tight enough, but it’s this last part. Watch how high he gets off the floor. I mean, you look at the bottom of his feet on that. And they’re at about the kneecap of the defender. And he knows at the end of that action, he can get off the floor and get that shot off in traffic. And he’s very comfortable again from that 12 to 18 ft area. I watch a lot of his father’s games. Jeff Shepard, he could hop a bit too. He had a little bounce to him. Matthews on the break for the Rockets. One more to Davidson for three. And it comes off to Young. Dante running the floor. Young didn’t choose to get it to him. Approaching three minutes to go in the opening quarter. Jeff Green ready to come back into the ball game. Canard back out to beat Crerachche. Young run off the three-point line. Pristine ball movement and Canard cashes out. Well, that’s a nice weapon now also to have. One of the best three-point shooters percentage-wise in the history of this league. The number one guy in terms of active three-point shooting percentage. And he’s the guy that you have on the weak side spacing now. And there’s the catch and shoot three ball from Reed Shepard. So he’s finding his way offensively. Houston back up by two. Shepard is four of six from the field for nine points. Beat Crerachche with a fadeaway and Harris with the pull. Harris on the drive. Fouled by Crerachche [Music] played for Czechoslovakia in Euro basket. I I feel like a lot of guys played in Euro Basketball. It does feel like it. Every every game we’re doing, right? There’s there’s two, three guys that had built different summer than they normally do. It’s about 25% of the league now made up of international players. Good jump shot there by the Rockets. And Aaron Holiday knocked that one down. Rachie from deep knocks it home. Both teams in a pretty good offensive flow right now. Jeff Green with a strong move. Couldn’t finish. And Crerache is another guy I didn’t even mention when you talk about the shooting. He’s 43% a year ago. Hits one and now here you go. Nothing better than to get backto back open looks as a shooter when you just knock one down. You can see he’s frustrated because he knows that’s going to be one of the cleanest looks he’ll get tonight. But again, and Chris Snder talked about this, they just wanted to get as much shooting on the floor as they possibly could this year to go with the pace and the guys that can run the floor. And you can have something special offensively when you have that combination. Atlanta 40 and 42 last year, eighth in the Eastern Conference. Off the horn’s chin action. Holiday got into the paint and laid it home. Nice move by Aaron Holidayiday, whose father Shawn in the building tonight visiting his son watching him play. Of course, got two other brothers that have won NBA titles that play in the NBA. Here’s Crerache. Good defense by Davidson to knock it away. And of course, who’s there? Ai smoked the layup though. Did everything but score it. Young in a moment of indecision turned it over. Yeah, he got that back in the middle of the floor and he immediately was thinking lob. Uh but he could re he realized that the defender was in pretty good position to take that away. So he tried to just sneak a dribble to himself and take it out the opposite side, but they caught him. Seven turnovers for the Hawks here in the opening quarter. Approaching a minute to go. Green sets the screen for Holiday using that hostage dribble on Young and gets whistled for the offensive foul. Well, you see guys do that a lot. You come off ball screen, right? The defender trails it and and you get him on your back. But the problem is Holiday as he started to accelerate down the lane that off elbow came back and caught Trey Young. Watching a lot of those Phil Handy videos calls it a hostage dribble. Tim, I love that term. Ball goes out of bounds. Pretty accurate. He got him in jail. All right. Yeah. And you can see it. It just kind of missed that. Atlanta whistled for delay of game. Holiday around the drag screen by Green. Ai took the hit and the foul. And he might have been behind the three-point line there. Tim, our vision a little bit blocked, but he could get three shots to earn three. Josh Aogi having himself a quarter. That’s now 11 points in the opening period for Josh Aogi, who signed a one-year deal during the offseason. Raphael Stone, the general manager, loves the additions that they’ve made, goes one for two. And they feel like in Houston they’ve been able to maintain their culture despite the trades and moves they’ve made. Young matched up against Jeff Green. Seven on the shot clock. Now they blitz him to put two on the ball. Newell back to Canard. One on the clock. I’m not sure he got it off. He didn’t. Good defense. There’s the culture for the Rockets. Yeah, absolutely. I think Luke Canard
Houston Rockets vs Atlanta Hawks Full Game Highlights | Oct 16, 2025 NBA Preseason TODAY
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