Atlanta didn’t just beat Charlotte on Friday night. The Hawks turned the Hornets’ home opener into a record book footnote, rolling to a 128-81 win and setting a new franchise mark for margin of victory in the process.
That 47-point spread topped Atlanta’s previous best, a 46-point win over Sacramento in 2017. Jalen Johnson and Aaron Wiggins paced the Hawks with 19 points each, but the damage was never about just two scorers. Atlanta got production across the lineup and kept piling on as the game slipped further out of reach.
Charlotte’s problems started with the ball. The Hornets committed 27 turnovers, and Atlanta kept cashing them in as the lead ballooned. By the end, Charlotte was stuck on 81 points and hearing boos from a sellout crowd in its first home game of the season.
There were real obstacles for the Hornets before tipoff. Kon Knueppel, Coby White and Grant Williams were all out, leaving Charlotte short on rotation pieces against a deep, aggressive Atlanta group. But even accounting for those absences, a 47-point margin is a brutal number to absorb.
For the Hawks, the night was a clear early sign of what this group can do when its defense and pressure on the ball are clicking. For Charlotte, the larger concern is how the team responds the next time an opponent starts forcing the issue.
One game won’t define a season, especially this early. Still, the Hornets’ first home crowd saw a record-setting opponent and a team that never found its footing.
Atlanta returns home Saturday to face the Houston Rockets. Charlotte also gets right back to work Saturday, hosting winless Miami.
In Other News...
Hawks Bench Newcomer Is Raising A Bigger Question Early
The Hawks have opened the season 2-1, and one of the clearest early bright spots has come from Aaron Wiggins, who has fit quickly into the rotation and given Atlanta a real lift off the bench. In his first three games, he has looked comfortable as a scorer and as a spacing threat, giving the second unit a steady option when the starters need a breather.
Wiggins has already entered the conversation for awards usually reserved for players who make a major leap or redefine a bench role, which says plenty about how quickly he has turned heads. For Atlanta, the bigger question now is whether this is just a strong opening stretch or the start of a season-long case that could change how the Hawks manage their second unit. [Read more 🡒]
Zaccharie Risacher Is Giving Hawks Fans A New Reason To Wonder
Zaccharie Risacher has been on the floor a lot early, starting nearly all of Dallas preseason games and averaging 30 minutes in the first two regular-season contests. For Hawks fans, that alone is enough to keep an eye on him, because the former Atlanta pick entered the league with the kind of shooting reputation that made his jump shot one of the biggest selling points in his profile.
So far, though, the early returns have been uneven. He has struggled to find efficiency from the outside and has only been able to finish half of his two-point looks, which stands in sharp contrast to the reputation he carried before the draft and the shooting he showed in Atlanta. The minutes are there, the opportunity is there, and the bigger question is whether the clean shooting touch that helped define his rise is still waiting to show up. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Hot Start Has Atlanta Dreaming About A Real Deadline Splash
A 2-0 start has put Atlanta in an unusually interesting spot this early in the season, and it is not just because of what is happening on the floor. The Hawks also have the kind of cap flexibility that can make a front office dangerous when the trade deadline starts creeping closer, especially for a team that wants to turn a strong opening into something more lasting.
The appeal is obvious: Atlanta has the financial room and enough movable salary to at least dream about chasing a bigger swing if the right opportunity comes along. Around the league, that kind of setup tends to invite speculation, and the Hawks are already being mentioned in conversations that range well beyond the ordinary, even if nothing concrete has materialized yet. [Read more 🡒]