There is no shame in losing to a good team, and that is what happened to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.

After starting the season 2-0 with wins over Orlando and Charlotte, the Hawks hosted the Houston Rockets, who were 2-0 themselves, and it was Houston that left State Farm Arena with a perfect record intact. The Hawks had a down shooting performance and could not get enough from their bench against a deep Rockets team that was missing Fred VanVleet, Marcus Smart, and Steven Adams.

When looking at the performances in the game last night, who stood out?

Starters

CJ McCollum: C+
Dyson Daniels: B+
Nickeil Alexander-Walker: B
Jalen Johnson: B+
Onyeka Okongwu: D+

The Hawks got solid performances from the majority of their starting lineup on Saturday night, but it was still not enough to get the win.

I thought it was the best performance of the season from Jalen Johnson. Johnson did not shoot the ball super well (8-for-19 from the floor and 2-for-7 from three), and he missed a point-blank shot to cut the lead to three late in the game, but he finished with 26 points, 16 assists, and nine rebounds. He tied his career high in assists and was the most effective player on offense. Johnson was also the only Hawk to finish with a positive plus/minus in the game.

Dyson Daniels also had a solid day. He was tasked with having to guard Kevin Durant on defense and he finished the game shooting 8-for-11 on offense for 18 points, eight rebounds, and three assists. He also hit his only three-point attempt. The Rockets are a tough matchup for Daniels, but he found a way to be effective on both ends of the floor.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker started the game hot, scoring nine points in the first quarter, but he cooled down the rest of the way. He finished with 18 points, five rebounds, and four assists, while also playing solid defense.

McCollum was on his way to having a much worse grade than what he got, but he was genuinely pretty good in the fourth quarter, where he scored 10 of his 17 points and kept the Hawks in the game late. Before the fourth quarter, he was struggling to get anything going and was not effective on offense.

It was a night to forget for Okongwu. The Rockets are a really tough matchup for him, but the Hawks need more than eight points and six rebounds from him in this game. It is just three games so far into the season, but Okongwu is averaging 8.7 PPG and 5.0 RPG while shooting 15.4% from three. For the Hawks to have a chance to finish as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, they need a better version of Okongwu.

Bench

Aaron Wiggins: B+
Lu Dort: C
Kingston Flemings: C-
Jock Landale: D+

The bench had a forgettable night as well aside from another nice night from Aaron Wiggins.

Wiggins helped the Hawks close the gap on the Rockets in the fourth quarter and finished the game with 16 points while shooting 4-for-9 from three. Through three games, Wiggins has been one of the Hawks best players and this was exactly what Atlanta was hoping they would get from him when they made the trade.

Dort, Flemings, and Landale combined for 11 points, with Dort scoring seven of those. Dort also had to guard Durant and did a solid, but not spectacular job in that. Dort is not going to be one that scores a lot, but he can still be effective on the floor, but the Hawks need more from Flemings and Landale.