HOU 117, ATL 95: Kevin Durant Leads HOU Rout
Destiny Williams
Math Teacher & Basketball Coach ยท Atlanta Hawks fan
Rockets Cruise Past Hawks, Durant Still a Monster but Jabari Smith Jr. Is the Real Story
117-95. That's what happens when your best scorer goes for 25 on 60% shooting and your third option decides to show up for once. Houston locked down Atlanta tonight, and if you've got Kevin Durant on your team, you're happy. If you've got Jabari Smith Jr., you're ecstatic.
Let me be real though, the Hawks came in flat. Like, genuinely disappointing flat. And that matters for fantasy because it tells us something about their rotation and who actually stepped up when things got tight.
Top Performers
| Player | ESPN FP | Yahoo FP | Tonight | Season Avg | +/- Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Durant | 61.0 | 49.6 | 25/3/6 | 25.7/5.5/4.5 | -0.7 |
| Jabari Smith Jr. | 41.0 | 40.8 | 23/9/2 | 15.6/6.8/1.8 | +7.4 |
| Alperen Sengun | 40.0 | 40.8 | 15/9/10 | 20.2/8.9/6.2 | -5.2 |
| Zaccharie Risacher | 43.0 | 34.2 | 16/6/2 | 10.0/3.9/1.3 | +6.0 |
| Nickeil Alexander-Walker | 31.0 | 31.8 | 21/4/4 | 20.4/3.5/3.7 | +0.6 |
| CJ McCollum | 38.0 | 31.4 | 17/2/2 | 18.6/3.4/3.6 | -1.6 |
| Reed Sheppard | 36.0 | 30.8 | 14/4/4 | 13.4/2.8/3.2 | +0.6 |
| Amen Thompson | 31.0 | 30.4 | 14/7/4 | 17.9/7.8/5.3 | -3.9 |
| Onyeka Okongwu | 27.0 | 29.1 | 6/8/3 | 15.6/7.8/3.2 | -9.6 |
| Tari Eason | 26.0 | 29.0 | 10/10/2 | 10.5/6.4/1.6 | -0.5 |
Durant Does Durant Things
Kevin Durant finished 49.6 Yahoo with 25 points on a clean 9-15 shooting. Nothing flashy, nothing weird. Just old reliable putting up exactly what you'd expect from a reigning All-NBA guy in a comfortable win. The -0.7 from his season average? That's noise. He's your set-it-and-forget-it guy, and tonight was proof why you don't let him go in auctions.
What's wild is he didn't even need to go crazy. Houston's system is working.
Jabari Smith Jr. Finally Remembered He Can Play
Here's where it gets interesting. Jabari Smith Jr. went for 40.8 Yahoo and +7.4 over his season average. That's a breakout. 23 points, 9 boards, 7-14 shooting with three threes. This is the Jabari people thought they'd get when he was drafted high.
The question is real: Is this sustainable or a one-off against a Hawks defense that looked like it forgot how to play transition defense? I'm leaning toward "we'll see," but if he keeps getting 35 minutes and touches like tonight, the ceiling is genuinely higher than his season average suggests. Jabari's worth watching closer going forward.
Zaccharie Risacher Is Putting in Work for the Hawks
Zaccharie Risacher went 34.2 Yahoo in just 19 minutes and crushed his season average by +6.0. That's efficient scoring from a young guy who looks like he's figuring things out. 6-8 shooting, three threes, nobody even fouled him. This is what breakout weeks look like early.
The problem? 19 minutes. That's not a full workload, so I'm not adding him to my roster yet. But if he keeps shooting like this and cracks 25+ minutes, we're talking about a deeper league pickup that could pay off. Watch his next game.
Sengun Underperformed but Still Did Sengun Things
Alperen Sengun had one of those nights where the stat line is underwhelming but the process was there. 40.8 Yahoo, 15 points, 9 rebounds, 10 assists. That assist number is exactly what Houston wants from him, and minus 5.2 points from his average feels more about tough shooting luck than actual regression. 7-11 is solid. The free throw line killed him (1-4), but that's not a pattern we should panic about.
Sengun remains one of the most valuable centers in fantasy because he does literally everything. Tonight just wasn't his scoring night, and that's fine.
CJ McCollum Couldn't Get Space
CJ McCollum put up 31.4 Yahoo but came up short of his season average by 1.6. The issue here is simple, looking at that box: 7-11 from the field is good, but 2 rebounds and 2 assists tells you Houston's defense suffocated the Hawks' ball movement. McCollum's a scorer first, so when the offense breaks down, his fantasy value gets clipped. Still a solid night on raw scoring, but the secondary stats were invisible.
The Hawks' Depth Just Wasn't There
CJ McCollum and Nickeil Alexander-Walker combining for 52.2 Yahoo sounds decent until you realize nobody else showed up for Atlanta. Onyeka Okongwu went 29.1 Yahoo but shot 2-9 and was clearly bothered by Houston's length. Jalen Johnson only managed 23.5 Yahoo in 31 minutes, down 5.4 from his season average. That's the story of the game: The Hawks' secondary scorers got smothered.
Take Away the Threes
Reed Sheppard had himself a night for Houston: 30.8 Yahoo with four threes in 24 minutes. This is the kind of efficient role player night that wins you weeks. He's not gonna change your team, but guys like this are the difference between 140 points and 155 points in a head-to-head.
Tari Eason went 29 Yahoo with 10 boards in 24 minutes. That's your glue guy pulling down everything, and in a blowout win, that's valuable depth. Not a waiver priority, but a solid reminder that Houston's bench is deeper than people think.
The Waiver Wire Story
Nickeil Alexander-Walker is getting added everywhere, and the ownership bump makes sense. He went 31.8 Yahoo and is now 87.4% owned in ESPN leagues. If you don't have him, you were probably asleep at the wheel earlier this season. He's a lock-and-forget guy in any league format at this point.
Steven Adams staying glued to the bench is interesting. Zero minutes for a guy who's been Houston's backup center. Don't add him.
What to Do Now
If you own Durant, you keep him. If you own Sengun, you relax. If you own Jabari Smith Jr. and picked him in deep leagues or grabbed him off waivers, you keep an eye on whether he gets another chance to prove this wasn't a one-off. And if you owned the Hawks depth and they underperformed, tonight's a good reminder that Atlanta's gonna have rough stretches where the role players don't contribute. That's fantasy.
Houston's the better team right now, and it showed. That matters for your playoffs matchup planning.