Hawks scream foul in defeat to Rockets, 100-96

It felt like 5-on-8 tonight.

The Hawks came into tonight looking to stop a five-game losing streak, and in an effort to shake things up, they gave Mouhamed Gueye his first career start at the year at power forward. Trae Young returned to action, but both Bogdan Bogdanovic and Zaccharie Risacher — who today was named to the 2025 Rising Stars competition at the All-Star weekend — missed this one along with Jalen Johnson and others.

Gueye got the Hawks on the board in his first start:

Just after tipoff, Clint Capela was also ruled out with back spasms, so the Hawks were left to contend with Alperen Sengun and others down some important bodies.

After a bit of a slow start, the Hawks defense got rolling, forcing Houston into some rough attempts and capitalizing in transition. Onyeka Okongwu put in a good early shift with plays like these:

Houston is a resilient team, of course, and they quickly fought back and made things a contest again.

De’Andre Hunter capped off the period in style, however:

After one quarter, the Hawks led 27-22.

On the balance, Atlanta continued to play stellar defense, but they had issues scoring at times, so the lead never grew. Keaton Wallace, however, cashed in this self-created opportunity:

The Hawks hit a lull after that and ceded the lead after an Amen Thompson jam halfway through the quarter.

Atlanta clawed back a bit when the starters plus De’Andre Hunter re-entered the game. Houston’s elite defense obviously posed the Hawks problems, but keeping the game close after a half down the players they are is an achievement in itself.

The Hawks somehow held onto a narrow 50-49 lead at halftime.

Neither team got off to roaring starts at the beginning of the third, but once the lids on the basket were taken off, it became an exciting affair again. The Rockets turned up the defensive intensity and forced Atlanta into some turnovers, and that helped them gain a slight edge in the game.

Hunter did his best to stem the tide, however:

The Rockets began to pull away later in the period, however, and Atlanta couldn’t get anything going on offense.

After one quarter, the Hawks now trailed 82-73.

The Hawks couldn’t quite close the gap at first, try as they might. Houston piled it on in the fourth quarter, and Atlanta didn’t come close to making a true comeback until Vit Krejci found an open lane for the lay-in to bring the score to 96-89 with 3:21 left to play.

Then the excitement really began. Trae Young hit a runner with Thompson on his hip to cut the lead to five points. A stop eventually led to a Dyson Daniels hoop plus the harm with 46.9 seconds left to play.

After the play, Trae Young and Dillon Brooks got into it, and both players eventually received technical fouls (despite Brooks seemingly grabbing Young’s neck).

A Jalen Green missed three gave the Hawks a final chance down two points with 25.5 seconds left in the contest. But a nearly ideal top of the key three-point attempt from Hunter was slightly off, and that was all she wrote.

The Hawks fell after a riotous late comeback, 100-96.

Trae Young finished with 21 points and nine assists. Dyson Daniels added 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Hawks have a day off before trying to snap their slide at the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday.