Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Hawks vs Houston Rockets: Starting Lineups For Tonight’s Game
The Atlanta Hawks and the Houston Rockets are getting ready to face each other tonight at State Farm Arena and the starting lineups for both teams were just announced:
G- Trae Young
G- Nickeil Alexander-Walker
F- Zaccharie Risacher
F- Onyeka Okongwu
C- Kristaps Porzingis
Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson won’t play tonight for Atlanta.
G- Reed Sheppard
G- Aaron Holiday
F- Josh Okogie
F- Isaiah Crawford
C- Jeff Green
Earlier this week, the Hawks signed Lamont Butler, M.J. Walker, and Deivon Smith before their third preseason game, but only Butler remains after the Hawks requested waivers on Walker and Smith.
Smith appeared in two games with the Hawks during the NBA 2K26 Summer League in Las Vegas, averaging 5.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 14.2 minutes (.600 FG%, 1.000 FT%).
Prior to suiting up for Atlanta’s Summer League team, the Decatur, Georgia, native saw action in 30 games (17 starts) with St. John’s during the 2024-25 season, notching 9.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.4 steals in 27.1 minutes of play, earning All-MET Honorable Mention.
Over the course of a five-year collegiate career, Smith appeared in 139 games (64 starts), averaging 8.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.1 steals in 24.8 minutes, suiting up for Mississippi State (2020-21), Georgia Tech (2021-23), Utah (2023-24) and St. John’s (2024-25).
Walker has appeared in two NBA games with the Phoenix Suns during the 2021-22 season on a 10-day contract, making his NBA debut on Dec. 31 at Boston. He has seen action in 132 career NBA G League games (57 starts) across four seasons with the Westchester Knicks (2021-23) and Greensboro Swarm (2023-25), owning averages of 10.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 25.0 minutes (.410 FG%, .375 3FG%, .795 FT%). The 6-5 guard knocked down a career-high 10 three-pointers in a win over Mexico City on Feb. 21, 2025, finishing with 30 points, five rebounds, four assists and one steal in 32 minutes.
A native of Jonesboro, Georgia, Walker appeared in 120 career collegiate games (82 starts) across four seasons at Florida State (2017-21), recording 9.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 24.3 minutes of play. The two-time All-ACC selection (All-ACC Second Team in 2021, All-ACC Honorable Mention in 2020), finished his Seminole career with 96 wins, the third-most in school history, leading Florida State to three NCAA Tournament appearances in his four seasons (2018, 2019, 2021).
Butler, a member of Atlanta’s NBA 2K26 Summer League 2025 team, appeared in 27 games (all starts) for Kentucky during the 2024-25 season, tallying career highs of 11.4 points, 4.3 assists and 2.9 rebounds, in addition to 1.6 steals in 26.0 minutes (.498 FG%, .391 3FG%, .735 FT%).
A native of Moreno Valley, California, Butler spent his first four collegiate seasons suiting up for San Diego State (2020-24), leading the Aztecs to the 2023 NCAA National Championship Game. He finished his Aztecs career ranked fifth all-time in steals (183), sixth in conference victories (52), ninth in total victories and 10th in assists (338). A three-time Mountain West Conference All-Defensive Team member, Butler was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2023-24.
In five collegiate seasons, Butler appeared in 158 games (129 starts), owning career averages of 8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals in 23.8 minutes (.428 FG%, .333 3FG%, .691 FT%).
Atlanta, GA
Cancellations, delays continue at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — The trouble for travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport continued Sunday as rain persisted in metro Atlanta.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, 487 flights have been delayed and 124 have been canceled.
TSA wait times have also ballooned; passengers going through the main checkpoint should expect to wait upwards of an hour, and those going through the north checkpoint should expect to wait more than 30 minutes.
The airport said, “The delays are the result of residual impacts from two ground stops issued on Friday, which created a temporary backlog in passenger volumes, combined with current TSA staffing constraints.”
The delays added to a disastrous weekend for Hartsfield-Jackson. Travelers on Saturday described hourslong tarmac waits, missed connections and overnight strandings after storms triggered mass cancellations and delays.
The Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines received the bulk of travelers’ frustration. The airline released a statement to Atlanta News First addressing the tarmac delays.
“We apologize to our customers, as we know that a delay on the tarmac waiting for an arrival gate is frustrating. Delta people worked through severe weather challenges in ATL that drove gating constraints overnight,” the company said. “The safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority.”
Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.
Atlanta, GA
Youth, served: Real Salt Lake pulls past Atlanta United to keep fast start
SANDY — Three games into the 2026 campaign and Real Salt Lake has a formula for success.
Spoiler alert: the kids are (still) all right.
Aiden Hezarkhani scored a goal for the second-straight week, rookie Sergi Solans added his first professional, and Real Salt Lake served its youth again en route to a 3-2 win over Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Fellow teenager Zavier Gozo also scored for Real Salt Lake, the Utah native’s first of the season after his breakout four-goal, three-assist campaign last year to help his home side improve to 2-1-0.
Aleksei Miranchuk had a brace for Atlanta, which fell to 0-3 while being outscored 7-2 a year after struggling to a 5-16-13 campaign.
“It was a shootout,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said. “This was one of those games that was super exciting. It’s a real credit to the group on both sides of the ball. I thought we were really deliberate … and defensively, we were great against a top attacking group.
“We knew it was going to be difficult. But the guys weathered the storm … and we challenged the group to dig deep, to defend our box, and manage the game the right way.”
Salt Lake, meanwhile, has won two of its first three matches — even with a shorthanded roster. The club lost Diego Luna (knee) and Victor Olatunji (eye) to injuries during the same training session before the season opener in Vancouver, and former U.S. international fullback DeAndre Yedlin picked up a hamstring injury last week.
But if adversity spawns opportunity, Real Salt Lake’s rising generation is taking advantage of either — or both. Give credit, too, to the veteran players for bringing along the youth that also include 17-year-old Luca Moisa — and not skip a beat.
“It’s like a brotherhood,” Mastroeni said. “There’s no guy that’s bigger than the team.”
Gozo and Morgan Guilavogui nearly connected for a goal just 49 seconds into the match, but the newly signed Designated Player making his first start saw his shot tipped over the cross bar.
Instead, Guilavogui gave the visitors the early lead midway through the first half, slipping a brilliant through ball behind the defense to Solans for the clinical finish in the 23rd minute.
Solans was selected with the 30th overall pick of the 2025 MLS SuperDraft by Salt Lake, who traded $50,000 in general allocation money to the LA Galaxy in select the Spanish native.
But instead of signing forthright with the club, Solans elected to return to collect for one more year and the 22-year-old alumnus of Spain’s Girona FC academy returned to UCLA and scored a team-high 16 goals with six assists in 19 matches en route to All-American second-team honors and a program record-breaking third hat trick in the Big Ten Tournament final.
“Sergi doesn’t necessarily have top-end speed,” Mastroeni said, “but he has top-end timing. When you threaten the back line, you don’t have to have the fastest speed. But you do have to have the right timing.
“You’ve got to make plays — and that’s what making plays looks like.”
Hezarkhani doubled the lead in the 27th minute, gaining possession of the ball in the final third with his chest off an angled touch from Solans before sliding a right-footed shot from the center of the box that put Salt Lake up 2-0.
It’s the second goal in as many matches for Hezarkhani, the 18-year-old academy alumnus who had six goals with four assists in 21 matches (19 starts) for Salt Lake’s third-division affiliate Real Monarchs a year ago.
Miranchuk pulled one back for the home side in the 38th minute, scoring Atlanta’s first goal of 2026 with one touch from Elias Baez from the center of the box to cut the deficit to 2-1.
But Gozo finished a counter initiated by Philip Quinton and Justen Glad with his left less than two minutes later to push Salt Lake back in front 3-1 at halftime.
After a series of second-half introductions including the halftime debut of Utah native and former Corner Canyon High standout Griffin Dillon for RSL, Miranchuk added another for Atlanta in the 74th minute to cut the deficit to 3-2.
But Rafael Cabral made two saves on 16 shots faced to help the visitors hold on for their second straight win.
Real Salt Lake returns home next Saturday, March 14 to host Austin FC (7:30 p.m. MDT, Apple TV) before a road trip to San Diego FC.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Atlanta, GA
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