Hawks 113-110 Thunder: the shorthanded bench carries the preseason finale, and the real thing is a week out

The Hawks closed the preseason the way they've spent most of it — with nobody you'll actually see much of playing, and the guys fighting for spots deciding the game. Monday night against Oklahoma City at State Farm Arena was a wire-to-wire rock fight between teams resting their real rotations, and Atlanta came out on top 113-110 to finish the exhibition slate 3-1. The box score is mostly noise about the 9 p.m. Oct. 21 opener in Orlando, but a few names made noise worth hearing before the lights come on for real.

The bench that got wrecked in Memphis closed the book on that

The throughline of this whole preseason has been the second unit. It got cooked in the opener against the Grizzlies, outscored San Antonio's reserves by 26 the game after, and it was the group's night again to close things out. Atlanta's bench hung 60 points on the board, and the rotation that Quin Snyder threw out there did it with grit rather than shooting. Even with the Thunder sitting its stars, this was a game Oklahoma City tried hard to win — 15 lead changes, 10 ties — and the Hawks' depth held up in the final tune-up.

Jock Landale locked in the backup-center job

This is who Landale is going to be, and tonight was proof he's ready. He finished 17 points on 7-of-11 with most of his damage in the paint, brought energy, and — the part that mattered after a manic month — didn't leak points on defense the way he has at times next to Corey Kispert and Asa Newell. As the backup behind the starters this season, consistency is the whole ask. This was the kind of night that answers it.

Zuby Ejiofor and Kobe Johnson are making the crunch hard

Ejiofor's the rookie without a defined role yet, and he filled the stat sheet against OKC — 15 points on 5-of-9, nine rebounds, three assists — in the exact backup-center minutes Landale gets when it counts. Kobe Johnson, meanwhile, did his work in under 10 minutes: 10 points, three rebounds, a couple of steals and the late plays that sealed the game. That's a two-way guy showing he can be trusted in a big moment. Kispert (2-of-11) and Newell (3-of-14) had the kind of nights that'll get them into the film room, but the guys below them on the depth chart keep making a case.

What it means

A 3-1 preseason for a team in the middle of a rebuild is worth exactly one thing: confirmation that the bench is no longer the leak it looked like in October's first week. The real season is eight days out, in Orlando, with Lu Dort, Trae Young, Jalen Johnson and the whole defensive pivot finally in it for keeps. The tune-up is over. Now the box scores count.

Bird Gang bottom line

Nobody's crowing over an exhibition win against OKC's scrubs, but the bench fixing itself across four games is the single most useful thing this month produced. Landale looks steady, Ejiofor's pushing for real minutes, Johnson's a gamer. If that depth holds into November, the preseason did its job. Basketball may not be on the pick'em board, but the season being a week away is reason enough to start arguing about it.

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