ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Kevin Durant scored 31 points and the Houston Rockets beat short-handed Atlanta 104-86 on Thursday night, ending the Hawks’ four-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
The Rockets dominated the second half after leading only 43-42 at halftime. Jabari Smith had 14 points and Reed Sheppard added 13. Sheppard’s 3-pointer gave the Rockets their first 20-point lead, 90-70. <\/p>\n
The Hawks held out two frontline starters with injuries. Center Onyeka Okongwu suffered a dental fracture when he was elbowed in the mouth in Atlanta’s 117-106 win at Boston on Wednesday night. Forward Jalen Johnson was ruled out with left calf tightness.<\/p>\n
The Hawks said Okongwu had a successful dental procedure on Thursday and also will miss Saturday’s game at Indiana. <\/p>\n
The Hawks already were missing center Kristaps Porzingis (left Achilles tendinitis) and forward Zaccharie Risacher (left knee, bone contusion). Two-way rookie Asa Newell was recalled from G League College Park before the game. Center Christian Koloko, who signed with Atlanta on Jan. 17, made his first start in his fifth game with the Hawks.<\/p>\n
CJ McCollum led Atlanta with 23 points. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 20 and Corey Kispert added 17.<\/p>\n
Rockets center Alperen Sengun (right ankle sprain) had nine points and 13 rebounds after being listed as questionable.<\/p>\n
Houston outscored Atlanta 35-24 in the third period and continued to stretch the lead in the final period.<\/p>\n
Houston center Clint Capela scored 10 points in his first return to Atlanta since he was traded to the Rockets on July 6, 2025. Capela held up both hands in a wave to the fans after he was honored with a video tribute during a first-quarter timeout.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tUp next<\/p>\n
Rockets: Host Dallas on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Hawks: Visit Indiana on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Kevin Durant scored 31 points and the Houston Rockets beat short-handed Atlanta 104-86 on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[56984,2097,676,208,3874,7,677,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-570209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-ap-sports","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-atlanta","11":"tag-atlanta-hawks","12":"tag-atlantahawks","13":"tag-basketball","14":"tag-hawks","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115982633748790557","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}