Hawks showcase defensive potential in franchise-record win at Hornets

The Atlanta Hawks continued their unbeaten start to the 2026-27 season as they notched a record-margin victory against the Charlotte Hornets with a 128-81 battering on Friday night at Spectrum Center; a winning margin of 48 points. The Hawks’ scoring was led by Jalen Johnson’s and Aaron Wiggins’ 19 points apiece as seven players scored in double-digits. For the Hornets, Naz Reid scored 17 points as they battled without Coby White and Kon Knueppel.

The Hornets took a brief lead in the first quarter as they racked up some offensive rebounds/second chance scoring opportunities, but once the Hawks reeled off an 11-0 run to take a 15-9 lead by the first timeout they would never look back in this game. What was established from quarter one — and would continue all throughout the game, even with the end-of-bench guys in the fourth quarter — was defense. The Hawks made life miserable for the Hornets all night long: from contesting shots, to running the Hornets down to short-clock scenarios (forcing them into tough shots as the 24-seconds loom) to forcing/creating turnovers, it was relentless from the Hawks.

Advertisement

The first quarter margin of 13 points in Atlanta’s favor wasn’t too unusual in an NBA first quarter, but the Hornets’ struggles continued and inside a couple of minutes in the second quarter the lead had risen beyond 20 points. By halftime, the lead had risen to 25, and it didn’t take too long to grow to 30 points in the third quarter.

Dyson Daniels, a menace all night defensively, racked up four steals alone in the third quarter — taking his tally up to seven (!) — as the Hornets scored two points in just under the opening six minutes of the quarter to ensure this game was dead and buried.

The Hornets waved the white flag to begin the fourth quarter, and the Hawks followed suit several minutes later (with one eye on today’s fixture against the Houston Rockets). The defensive intensity with that end-of-bench unit continued, with Dorian Finney-Smith in particular enforcing himself on the defensive end. The lead rose as high as 49 points before finally settling on a 48 point margin of victory, the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/hawks-showcase-defensive-potential-franchise-123444274.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-10-24 12:34:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.