Rockets Beat Hawks 120-110 at Toyota Center to Stay Perfect at 4-0

The Houston Rockets stayed perfect on Monday night, beating the Atlanta Hawks 120-110 at Toyota Center to improve to 4-0, according to the Sportradar score record for the game. Atlanta led 35-32 after the first quarter and 66-63 at halftime, but the game turned in the third, when Houston outscored the Hawks 28-19 to take a 91-85 lead into the fourth and then matched Atlanta down the stretch, 29-25, to close it out.

The win completed a home-and-home sweep. Houston won the first meeting 121-114 in Atlanta on Saturday night, its third win in four nights to open the season, behind 22 points from Kevin Durant and seven Rockets in double figures, with Amen Thompson posting his third straight double-double and Reed Sheppard scoring 19 in a spot start. Atlanta fell to 2-2 with Monday's loss.

Houston's depth was the story of the weekend set. On Saturday the Rockets were without Fred VanVleet on the second night of a back-to-back, along with Steven Adams and Marcus Smart, and still built a 20-point lead before holding off a late Hawks run. "Guys don't care about the circumstances or who's available," Rockets coach Ime Udoka said before Monday's rematch. "It's a group that's confident with whoever's out on the court."

Atlanta's Jalen Johnson was the best player on the floor Saturday, with 26 points, 16 assists and nine rebounds, but the Hawks' backcourt shooting hurt them across the two games, and Monday's third quarter — 19 points against a set Houston defense — was where the rematch got away. The Rockets' 4-0 start is the early statement of their season: four wins in five days, home and road, short-handed and whole.