6 Takeaways From Hawks’ 113-110 Preseason Win Over Thunder

Six Atlanta Hawks regulars sat out for rest Monday night: Onyeka Okongwu, Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, CJ McCollum, Luguentz Dort, and Aaron Wiggins. Atlanta beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 113-110 at State Farm Arena in its final home game of the preseason.

Oklahoma City traded Dort and Wiggins to Atlanta this summer, and Monday was its first game against them. Neither played.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who sat out the previous game at Indiana, was the one rotation regular in uniform. He started and logged 25 minutes.

Oklahoma City dressed nine players, all of them rookies, two-way players, or Exhibit 10 signings. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault had said beforehand that his main rotation would not make the trip, and the 12 players who stayed home included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren.

Henri Veesaar tore his right ACL in a Sept. 15 workout and is scheduled for surgery in October. He is expected to miss the season. Mouhamed Gueye, who fractured his left foot in a July 8 workout and had surgery six days later, is in the middle of a three-to-four-month re-evaluation window.

Landale had averaged 5.3 points and shot 35.7% from the field through the first three preseason games, according to CBS Sports. Starting at center Monday, he scored 17 on 7-of-11 shooting.

Three of those seven baskets were assisted by Alexander-Walker, two on cutting dunks in the first quarter and one on a cutting layup midway through the third. Landale also hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter and took the ball from Bennett Stirtz twice in the final 75 seconds of the half. His pass after the first steal set up a Kingston Flemings dunk.

Atlanta acquired Landale on Feb. 4, shortly after an eight-player trade had sent him from Memphis to Utah.

Ejiofor did not get first-half minutes in the Oct. 5 opener, Jackson Caudell of SI's All Hawks noted. He played 23 minutes Monday, all off the bench, and grabbed 9 rebounds to go with his 15 points.

Five of those rebounds came on the offensive end, and two of them, both off missed Flemings layups, turned into fourth-quarter putbacks that made it 81-79 and then 87-81. With 2:02 left in the third, he blocked a running layup by Anthony Pritchard.

The Hawks used a pick from Cleveland to take him 23rd overall in June. As a senior at St. John's, he averaged 16.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. His rookie-scale deal is worth about $17.3 million over four years, according to Spotrac.

On draft night, Hawks president of basketball operations Onsi Saleh described a player who "switches one through five, could guard point guards, guard bigs or big wings," according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Newell was the No. 23 pick a year earlier, acquired in a draft-night trade with New Orleans. He opened this preseason with 12 points and 12 rebounds against Memphis and then led Atlanta with 16 points at San Antonio. In Indiana, he did not play in the first half and finished with 8 points.

Monday, he started and logged more than 27 minutes. He made 3 of 14 shots, and eight of the misses were 3-pointers. He grabbed 10 rebounds.

Flemings, the eighth overall pick, started for the second time this preseason. He had 5 of his 7 assists by halftime, though he shot 3-of-11 over 28 minutes. At San Antonio on Oct. 8, coming off the bench, he had 15 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals in 19:50.

Off the bench, RayJ Dennis sent three of his assists to Ejiofor, on a first-quarter layup, a first-quarter alley-oop, and a third-quarter 3-pointer that made it 77-70. His own 3 with 11.6 seconds left put the Hawks up four.

Jalen Johnson's younger brother went undrafted out of UCLA in 2025. Atlanta signed Kobe Johnson to an Exhibit 10 deal that September, waived him before the season, and he spent 2025-26 with the College Park Skyhawks.

In about 10 minutes Monday, he made all four of his shots, two of them from 3-point range, for 10 points. His driving layup off a Newell pass put the Hawks up 89-87 with 7:40 left. The other came at 1.8 seconds and made it 113-107.

Stirtz, a rookie, started in the Oklahoma City backcourt and finished with 26 points, making six 3-pointers. Aday Mara, another rookie, started at center and had 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. He had scored 22 against Milwaukee five days earlier.

Atlanta wraps up the preseason Friday against the Dallas Mavericks, an 8 p.m. ET tip-off in Dallas, and opens the regular season five days later in Orlando. The Hawks visit Oklahoma City on Nov. 18.