Hawks Enter 2nd Official Week of Season

The Atlanta Hawks are sitting at 7th in the Eastern Conference with a 2-2 record after the first official week of play in the 2026-27 season. Atlanta has beaten both Orlando and Charlotte on the road while losing their 2nd straight home opener to the Rockets and losing their revenge matchup in Houston on Monday. We're going to break down each opponent as well as what the Hawks are doing well and also not so well.

Opening Night Against Orlando 

Atlanta traveled to Orlando to open the season last Tuesday and left with a very scrappy 132-125 victory to move to 1-0. The story of the night on both sides of the ball was how many fouls were committed. There was an astounding 58 fouls across both teams (30 for ATL, 28 for ORL) and 75 free throw attempts (36 for ATL, 39 for ORL). Atlanta shot the ball fairly well as they were 38.9% from 3 and 48.9% from the field. Nickeil Alexander-Walker led the way with 31 points (11 in the 4Q) while Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels added 20 points apiece. Paolo Banchero put up 35 points and was on a heater all night long. He shot 10-12 from the field (3-4 from 3) and went 12-16 from the charity stripe.

Aaron Wiggins made his anticipated Hawks debut and absolutely shined with 16 points. The highest net rating lineup for the Hawks all night long was Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Aaron Wiggins, Jalen Johnson, and Onyeka Okongwu. They had a 45.8 net rating. That lineup was on the floor for 15 possessions in 6:45 minutes and had a whopping 133.3 offensive rating to an 87.5 defensive rating.

The Largest Margin of Victory

 in Franchise History 

Atlanta traveled to Charlotte for game 2 of the regular season and left with a 47-point victory by a score of 128-81. This is the largest margin of victory in franchise history. Atlanta played 13 guys and all 13 scored. Every starter had 10+ points as well. Atlanta's defense was "swarming" Charlotte all night long as they forced 25 turnovers and held the Hornets to just 34.5% from the field (21.6% from 3). Dyson Daniels had 7 steals on the night. Jalen Johnson led the way with 19 points on the night and was the leading scorer in the game. Atlanta's starting lineup had a 92.4 net rating in 32 possessions. Atlanta's starting five was on the floor for 15:41 minutes and had a 134.4 offensive rating compared to a 41.9 defensive rating. 

Rookie Kingston Flemings picked up 8 assists on the night to go with his 5 points and 6 rebounds. Flemings picked up his first NBA points with a tip in at the 10:04 mark in the 2nd quarter. He later added a 3 pointer in the 4th quarter. 

Houston Woes

Houston traveled to State Farm Arena for the Hawks' home opener and left with a 121-114 victory. Hawks were down by as many as 20 points in the game and had a chance to cut the deficit to 2 points on a Jalen Johnson layup, but a miss there which followed up with a Nickeil Alexander-Walker missed second chance 3PT attempt summed up the night for the Hawks. Nothing was going their way for them on either side of the ball. Atlanta shot 26.5% from 3 and 44.8% from the field. Alexander-Walker had 4 of the 5 Hawks three pointers in the 1st half.

Jalen Johnson led the way for the Hawks with an impressive 26 points, 16 assists, and 9 rebounds. Kevin Durant led the way for the Rockets with 22 points. Atlanta just couldn't get anything going on offense until it was too late. They shot 5-13 from deep in the 3rd quarter and then cooled off in the 4th quarter. 

Atlanta's starters had a –6.0 net rating with only a 102.9 offensive rating and a 108.8 defensive rating. Atlanta simply just couldn't hit shots, and it led to other things not going their way as well. Houston is a bad matchup for Atlanta because quite frankly, the Hawks don't have the physicality or size to beat a team like that.

Atlanta lost their revenge matchup Monday night in Houston, 120-110. It was pretty much the same story as Saturday night in Atlanta. The Hawks shot 28.2% from 3 and 42.9% from the field. Alperen Sengun absolutely dominated the Hawks' lack of size and paint presence. He had an impressive 29 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists, and 6 steals. 

Atlanta actually led 66-63 at halftime, but it was the 2nd half that was costly for the Hawks. Atlanta shot 8-23 (34.8%) from 3 and 24-49 (49.0) from the field in the 1st half. The 2nd half was a completely different story as they shot just 3-16 (18.8%) from 3 and 18-49 (36.7) from the field. Thankfully, the Hawks got both matchups against Houston out of the way before November.

Looking Ahead 

The Hawks come back to State Farm Arena tonight to take on the Miami Heat, who are 0-4. Atlanta has the 11th easiest schedule for the remainder of the way and the 6th easiest in the next 2 weeks. Hawks need to take advantage of the next month of games and get some wins under their belt as well as some momentum. 

Miami comes in 0-4, but Giannis is still putting up impressive numbers. He is averaging 28.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 5.0 assists on the year so far. But it is not the stats at a glance that tell the entire story. This new group is still learning to mold together. Giannis' on/off splits are quite interesting. He has played 127 minutes so far this season and in those minutes the Heat have a 99.6 offensive rating and a 119.5 defensive rating. Miami's EFG% is 48.1% compared to 53.8% when Giannis is off the floor. Miami's rebound percentages, assist percentages, and steal percentages are all better with Giannis on the floor. Their block percentage and turnover percentage are better with him off the floor. Giannis has spent 67 minutes on the bench this season, and in those minutes, Miami has a 111.2 offensive rating and an 111.4 defensive rating. 

The Hawks need to be able to hit shots tonight with Miami's duo of Giannis and Bam Adebayo locking down the paint. 

Some keys to tonight's game that we have discussed are packing the paint and rebounding, containing everybody outside of Giannis, and making shots. Giannis is an All-NBA player for a reason; he is going to get his share of points and rebounds. Making sure nobody outside of him gets hot is important.

The Positives and The Negatives So Far

The Hawks have done some good things and some things that aren't so good.

Starting with the things that Atlanta needs to work on; Onyeka Okongwu and Jock Landale need to figure it out. This is not to pick on them or whatever it's called nowadays, but Atlanta's center duo has shot the ball poorly to start the year. Combined, they are 41% from the field and are shooting the 3 ball at a 14% clip. Getting the center duo settled in and making shots opens the offense so much. 

It is also NOT only the center room, Atlanta is only shooting 33% from 3 as a team which is 16th in the league. Jalen Johnson is shooting 15.8% from 3 to start the year. Atlanta is 10th in the league in field goal percentage, coming in at 46.7% as a team. It is only 4 games into the season, so things will change but just come early notes.

Now, for the good things Atlanta has done so far. Atlanta leads the league in assists per game at 31.5. The Hawks are 5th in the league in points per game at 121.0 and 4th in the league in turnovers at just 13.8 a game. They are also 2nd in the league in points in the paint per game at 57.0. The Perimeter defense has been great to start the year, and it shows as the Hawks are 4th in the league in deflections at 20.3 and 4th in the league in steals at 11.3. Atlanta's guard depth is very deep, and they have built a defensive culture on the perimeter. 

Our Win Predictions for This Season 

Hawks Over/Under on BetMGM is 43.5

Ant- Over

Marco- Over

Blake- Under

Chris- Under

Leon- N/A

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Make sure to follow all of us over here at the Hard Knock Hawks Podcast and make sure to check out our latest episode where we dive deeper into some of the things mentioned above. As always, GO HAWKS! CAW CAW!

Ant- @InsaneKaine

Chris- @Chri21opher

Leon- @justinvisible6

Marco- @Hawksfan200

Blake- @Blake_Rodgers4