As the referee blew the whistle, the Rockets' back-to-back away games against the Atlanta Hawks officially began.

After James Harden's transfer to the Rockets, the Rockets were full of confidence, and it was completely impossible to see that they were a team that had missed the playoffs for three consecutive years.

At the beginning of the game, Harden, the core player of the Rockets, led the Rockets' offense, Harden changed direction, flashed Harris who defended him and rushed to the basket, but his first jump shot was blocked by the Hawks power forward Josh Smith, and the Hawks immediately launched a counterattack, and Teague scored a layup to score the first point of the game.

With 40 points, 6 rebounds, 12 assists, 4 steals and 1 block on 14-of-27 shooting in his debut at the new club, Harden became the hottest star in the league today, but the defensive pressure on him also hit him overnight like a rising tide.

This also made Harden's first three attacks useless, 1 block, 1 iron, 1 turnover, and it wasn't until 4:30 of the first quarter that Harden scored the first point with a jumper.

The Eagles, on the other hand, took advantage of beautiful offensive and defensive transitions to make consecutive offensive successes and instantly establish a 10-point lead.

But Harden didn't seem to care — because he was already on the cards, and in the next five minutes, he made all six shots and scored 15 points in the first quarter.

Even the tall man sitting on the bench had to admire Harden's ability to adjust.

At 24:23, the first quarter ended with the Rockets leading the Hawks by one point.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Harden continued the hot hand in the latter part of the first quarter, scoring 4 points in a row with a breakthrough and a pull-up jump shot, but Hawks point guard Teague made three points like a divine help, and two consecutive three-pointers overtook the score.

Then Teague successfully stole Jeremy Lin, and in a quick counterattack, Teague, who is 1.88 meters tall and emaciated, jumped high and scored a one-handed slam dunk.

At this time, Rockets coach McHale made his first substitution of this game, and he came on the field to replace the team's starting point guard Jeremy Lin.

The excellent performance in the last game still left a deep impression on Rockets coach McHale, and the game was given the opportunity to play at the beginning of the second quarter.

The Rockets had a strange lineup on the court, and Harden, who was also the team's scoring guard, and the tall and strong partner guard appeared on the court at the same time, but Rockets coach McHale was still very calm, because both Harden and Tall and Strong had good ball control and strong offensive ability.

Tall and strong immediately achieved results after coming on the court, tall and strong in the high position to hold the ball, sideways looking for opportunities, Patterson decisively lifted, and also very witty at the same time to cut into the basket, the two just right to form a blocking and dismantling cooperation, Patterson stuck Teague's travel route, and tall and strong rushed to the basket, facing the Hawks center Horford sitting under the basket, tall and strong with his right shoulder against the opponent, three slow steps to the left arm basket, but also to Horford's foul.

As soon as "YEAH" came on the field, he successfully scored 2+1, which made the tall and strong extremely excited.

Then Harden made a sneak attack under the basket and scored again, causing Horford to foul again, and it was 2+1 again.

The Hawks took a timeout to try to turn the deficit around, but the tall and strong back-to-back driving layups made the Eagles' adjustments useless.

"Snap" Tall and Strong took the ball on the flank of the paint area, and in the face of the thin Teague, Tall and Strong launched an attack without hesitation.

"Peng" was tall and strong after holding the ball, and turned around, the whole person completely leaned on Teague, tall and strong suddenly exerted force, and the unprepared Teague was squeezed to take a big step back, taking advantage of Teague's unstable standing, the tall and strong was even more continuous force, and a few strokes pressed Teague into the paint area.

Just when Teague tried his best to resist the tall and strong, and the Hawks were ready to come over to help defend inside, the tall and strong shook his shoulders, skillfully unloaded the force, quickly turned around and flashed over Teague, and easily scored 2 points with a pick.

The Rockets re-established their lead after the tall man assisted Harden to score on an empty basket after drawing the attention of the Hawks' defense.

At the end of the second quarter, Harden played an extremely rare 3+1, and then the icing on the cake of the tall and strong three-pointer, the Rockets led the Hawks by 10 points at halftime, 54:44.

Harden scored another 12 points in a single quarter, while Tall and Strong also scored 10 points in a single quarter.

In the third quarter of the game, although Harden and Gao Dazhuang, as partners on the team's guard line, had little cooperation with each other, and the tacit understanding between the two was not enough, the strong offensive power of the two still ensured the continued lead of the Rockets.

In the third quarter, the tall and strong opened with a three-point shot, although Hawks power forward Smith was not to be outdone, and center Horford also scored a dunk.

But Harden immediately played a delicate combination with Patterson and Parsons to score a heavy dunk, and then Parsons made a wonderful pass to Harden with a long-range three-point shot, and the Rockets quickly extended their lead to 14 points.

Jeremy Lin then replaced Harden and partnered with the tall and strong guard line.

But there was a sudden change in the situation on the court, and the Hawks were chased by Teague for 4 points in a row, although the tall and strong made two consecutive free throws, it was still difficult to stop the Hawks from counterattacking the momentum.

Then Smith and Teague teamed up to launch a 10-0 attack wave to successfully chase the score to just 2 points.

At this critical moment, Rockets center Asik stepped up and not only successfully controlled the backcourt rebounds, but also won consecutive offensive rebounds in the frontcourt, ensuring the Rockets' secondary offense.

And with the guarantee of rebounds, Gao Dazhuang also let go of his hands and feet and began to show his offensive talent, emergency stop jump shots, breakthrough throws, and Gao Dazhuang's continuous offensive success, completely consolidating the Rockets' lead.

The tall and strong took the ball and slowly moved forward, and the moment he stepped into the three-point line, the ball slammed from the crotch to the other side, and the tall and strong shoulders were about to break through from the bottom line, but just when the Hawks defender Harris just took a step to try to block his breakthrough route, the ball in the tall and strong hand returned to the other side from the crotch, followed by a step back.

In the blink of an eye, the tall and strong instantly opened the offensive gap and made a decisive move.

With a "brush", Gao Dazhuang singled Harris at the top of the three-point arc and hit a three-point hollow shot.

With this three-point hit, Gao Dazhuang scored 20 points again in this game, but despite Gao Dazhuang's excellent performance, not only the focus of this game is someone else.

As the heart of the team, Harden came on again in the fourth quarter and replaced the tall man who played well.

Just on the court, Harden holds the ball outside the three-point line on the right side, and the Rockets are still the old routine - blocking and pick-and-roll, Asik mentioned that the high post cooperates with Harden, and Harden moves sideways to the right with the ball, which is an action he is not used to, and last season, Harden almost never initiated a pick-and-roll from the right side.

However, this time, Harden did not choose to dribble and cut, but directly pulled out three points, DeSean Stevenson tried his best to squeeze through the cover, but found that Harden actually stopped urgently, and he couldn't hold back his pace in desperation, so he could only pay for a foul and watch Harden complete the four-point score again.

In the next game, although the Rockets took a big lead, Harden did not relax - although he couldn't see how desperate Harden was, his shooting was just going to score.

Harden, who is getting better and better, receives the ball in the front court, holds the ball outside the left three-point line and examines the Hawks' defense - when Harden has scored 31 points on 13-of-17 shooting, the Hawks still dare to let Stevenson defend Harden alone.

Seeing this scene, Harden decisively signaled his teammates to pull away, and forced Stevenson to cause a foul.

The breakaway also gave Stevenson his fourth foul, two of his previous three fouls to Harden and one to Tall Strong.

A minute later, Harden made a pull-up jump shot from 17 feet out, and also hit Stevenson's fifth foul, but missed the free throw, but then, in the second offense, Harden seized the moment when the Hawks changed defenses, and directly faced the Hawks power forward Smith, Harden very heroically chose to cut in from the far end, and used his speed to pass Smith from the left side he was most familiar with, and scored 2 points on a layup under the three-man bag, and let Horford, who assisted in the defense, eat a foul.

In just 20 seconds, Harden scored 7 points alone and helped the Rockets completely seal the victory.

In the case of a large lead, Harden was extremely excited, and with unlimited shots, he began to attack his scoring record.

With one and a half minutes left before the end of the game, Harden's breakthrough caused Pachulia to foul, and he made two free throws to score Harden's 40th point of the game, tying the record for the highest score in his career.

And that's not all, just 8 seconds later, Harden once again let Smith pay for a foul, and made 2 of 2 free throws, 42 points! A new career high.

In the last 16 seconds, Harden almost ran out of offensive time and pulled out his hand outside the three-point line, but Stevenson actually cooperated very well to pay for his sixth foul and three free throws!

Harden steadily improved his personal scoring to 45 points.

In the whole game, Stevenson left the court with 6 fouls, including 5 fouls to Harden, which can be said to be the first contributor to Harden's new scoring record.

In the end, the Rockets defeated the Hawks 109-101 on the road, winning two consecutive games of the season.

Harden, who shocked the league with his debut in Houston, was still in hot form, scoring a career-setting 45 points, setting a single-game score for his NBA career, along with seven rebounds and two assists.

The last time a player on the Rockets managed to score at least 45+7 in a single game was back in January 2005, when Maddy scored 45 points and 12 rebounds against the Nuggets.

In the two games of the new season, Harden scored a total of 85 points and is now the league's top scorer.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to Harden's astonishing 45 points, Rockets center Asik's 19 rebounds also set a career-high personal record.

Away to the Atlanta Hawks, Asik faced a huge challenge, after all, the Hawks' two interior power forwards, Josh Smith and center Horford, are both physical and speedy interior players, and for Asik, his advantage will lose its lethality.

However, Asik started the game for 36 minutes, and although he shot 0-of-7 and did not score, he grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds and tied a career high of 9 offensive rebounds.

In addition, the Rockets' "Tanhua Show" Gao Dazhuang also scored 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists in 20 minutes of playing time.