{"id":945296,"date":"2026-10-25T04:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T04:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945296\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T04:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T04:22:11","slug":"kevin-durant-scores-22-reed-sheppard-hits-five-threes-to-lead-houston-rockets-to-win-in-atlantas-home-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945296\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant scores 22, Reed Sheppard hits five threes to lead Houston Rockets to win in Atlanta\u2019s home opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Kevin Durant<\/a> scored 22 points and both Reed Sheppard<\/a> and Tari Eason<\/a> had 19 points as the Houston Rockets<\/a> beat the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> 121-114.<\/p>\n

The Hawks nearly pulled off a comeback by cutting Houston\u2019s 20-point lead down to five in the closing moments, but Durant knocked down two three throws with 18.9 seconds remaining to push the lead back to three possessions.<\/p>\n

The win gave Houston its first 3-0 start since 2017-18, and spoiled Atlanta\u2019s home opener after the Hawks won their first two games of the season on the road. <\/p>\n

Seven Rockets scored in double figures. Amen Thompson<\/a> posted his third consecutive double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Alperen Sengun<\/a> had one of his own with 17 points and 10 rebounds. <\/p>\n

Jalen Johnson<\/a> sored 26 points and tied his career-high with 16 assists for the Hawks. <\/p>\n

The Rockets, who led the NBA in offensive rebounds last season, continued leaning on it as a strength with 13 offensive rebounds leading to 22 second chance points. Sheppard, a 3-point sharpshooter who shot 43% from beyond the arc last year, shook off a 1 of 6 start to his season with a 5 of 11 performance. <\/p>\n

The Hawks on the other hand were a dismal 12 of 45 from 3-point range for the night and 5 of 22 in the first half. <\/p>\n

Atlanta\u2019s Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/a> scored 18 points, and Aaron Wiggins<\/a> made a strong impression in his first home game with the franchise after coming over from Oklahoma City in a summer trade, scoring 16 points off the bench. <\/p>\n

Up Next<\/p>\n

The Rockets and Hawks will play the second half of their home-and-home Monday in Houston. <\/p>\n

Alan Cole, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Kevin Durant scored 22 points and both Reed Sheppard and Tari Eason had 19 points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-945296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}