The good news for the Atlanta Hawks is that they are not going to face the Houston Rockets for the rest of the season, unless we get a truly shocking NBA Finals matchup. The bad news is that the Rockets handed Atlanta their second loss of the season and showed that they are clearly a better team than Atlanta.
The problems that cost the Hawks on Saturday night were not that different from what cost the Hawks last night. Atlanta was able to force turnovers and win the possession battle, but poor shooting once again cost the team a chance to get a win against one of the NBA's best. They are now 2-2 heading into their Wednesday night matchup vs. Miami.
So who stood out from the Hawks loss to the Houston Rockets?
Winners
CJ McCollum
McCollum was not very good for the majority of the game on Saturday, but saved himself by having a strong fourth quarter. It was a much more consistent effort throughout the game on Monday by McCollum, and there were times you could argue that he was the best player on the court for the Hawks.
McCollum finished the night with 20 points on 50% shooting from the field and 57% from three. He was consistently able to score against a tough Houston defense and it was a good sign for the Hawks, who won't have to face an athletic defense like this all that often.
Onyeka Okongwu
Okongwu was one of the losers from Saturday's game, but he had a nice bounce-back performance and might have had his best performance of the season against Houston on Monday.
Okongwu finished the game with 11 points and nine rebounds, shooting 5-for-10 from the field, though he was just 1-for-4 from three. The shooting needs to come around, but Okongwu had a really nice third quarter that kept Atlanta in the game. Can he build off this game going forward?
Atlanta's ability to force turnovers
Atlanta needed to be able to force turnovers against the Rockets and they did a great job of that. The Hawks ended up scoring 32 points off of 22 Houston turnovers and although the Hawks could not win the game, they showed they are going to be a team that is capable of doing that to just about any team this season.
Losers
Dyson Daniels
Daniels has been terrific this season, but Monday's game was one to forget.
He finished with four points, four assists, and zero rebounds in over 28 minutes while shooting 2-for-8 from the field. The Rockets were able to limit his effectiveness in every aspect on offense and it will be good tape to learn from if you are Daniels.
Hawks second half-shooting
The three-point shooting was a disaster on Saturday night, but the Hawks were much better in the first half of this game. But eventually, the bottom ended up falling out and the Hawks could not buy a bucket.
In the third quarter alone, Atlanta only shot 32% from the field and were a ghastly 0-for-10 from three. Those numbers are not good enough to beat the Brooklyn Nets, let alone the Houston Rockets. In the second half total, the Hawks shot 3-for-16 from three. It was a poor couple of games for the Hawks to go cold in, but they did.
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