Atlanta Hawks beats Rockets in opener as backcourt shine

The Atlanta Hawks opened their season with a win against the Houston Rockets. The Hawks won 117-107 with Dejounte Murray and Trae Young leading the Hawks’ offense to a showcase in the debut game for the pairing.

Young was able to have a solid game as he finished with 23 points and 13 assists. While Young did have a solid game overall, he shot a dreadful 11 percent from three. Despite the poor three-point shooting, the All-NBA player did play like himself.

Murray was also able to control the offense with a level of dazzlement. He ended up with 20 points and 11 assists. While he didn’t shoot light-outs from three, the all-star did have a solid shooting night overall.  He ended up going 8 of 19 from the floor (1 0f 5 from three).

Is the Atlanta Hawks’ offense going to be fun to watch this year?

In this game, both of these players showed this offense is going to be fun to watch this year. De’Andre Hunter and John Collins are fun to watch as the complementary pieces to Murray and Young who were controlling the offense.

Hunter ended up with 22 points on 66 percent shooting from the floor. Collins ended up with 24 points on the same percent shooting as Hunter. Both of these players thrived off Murray and Young.

An example of this is when Trae used a Collins pick and pop to set up the big man with a wide-open three-point shot. The Hawks’ defense has improved as well. Murray showed what he can bring tonight defensively as he had 5 steals. Including a steal that turned into a transition bucket.

The Atlanta Hawks should have blown the Rockets out of the water but didn’t due to the bench

While it was a great way to start the season, I expected the Hawks to blow the Rockets out of the water. They did not. This game was close until the Hawks pulled away late.

The Rockets do have some talent on their roster including 3rd overall pick Jabari Smith Jr, Jalen Green, and Kevin Porter Jr but they are a rebuilding squad.

I liked a lot of the stuff I saw out there tonight from the Hawks and I am not really concerned about the Rockets being able to keep the game close.

With that being said, if you want to overreact to the first game of the season, the Hawks bench didn’t really contribute a lot offensively. While Onyeka Okongwu did have a solid contribution, the rest of the bench didn’t really play well.

As already stated, take this with the biggest grain of salt but the Holiday brothers didn’t really contribute that much tonight. While Aaron Holiday ended up with 5 points on 40 percent shooting, I thought both brothers would thrive on having Murray/Young on the court at all times.

While it wouldn’t really matter in the long run, it might be something to look at with Bogdan Bogdanovic out for the first couple of games this season.

Despite the semi-close result tonight, Hawks fans should be excited this season. This team is going be really fun to watch all year and will compete for a top-six spot in a loaded East. The Hawks’ next game is against the Magic on October 21st at 7:30 P.M