Warriors put on defensive clinic in win over Hawks

Back in the win column!

The Golden State Warriors would have been excused for coming out slow on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks. They were coming off a disappointing and dramatic loss to the LA Clippers on Monday, and on Wednesday afternoon were hit with brutal news: starting shooting guard De’Anthony Melton will undergo season-ending surgery on his sprained ACL.

But they didn’t come out slow. Instead, they came out swinging. A fun first quarter saw the teams go back and forth for a while, until the Dubs turned on the burners. An outstanding defensive performance — led by Draymond Green’s superstar defense, and Lindy Waters III putting the clamps on high school teammate Trae Young — forced Atlanta’s top-10 offense to go ice cold, while the offense started to fly. An absurd 24-2 run put the Dubs in control, and they would never relinquish that control. That run was part of a 27-7 end to the quarter, which gave Golden State a 41-22 lead at the end of the frame, and their highest first-quarter point total.

For a while in the second quarter it looked like the Dubs might think about giving that lead back. They flirted with getting a little sloppy, and let Atlanta’s offense find a little life. The Hawks started to bother the Warriors with their abundance of wing length and athleticism, as their hands were getting on passes, shots, and offensive rebound opportunities.

But the Warriors never let the lead slip much, and an excellent two-for-one sequence put a stamp on the half: a Green missed three was collected by Andrew Wiggins, who put the ball right back in. On the other end, Steph Curry poked the ball away from Dyson Daniels, then found Wiggins alone in transition for an uncontested dunk. After Atlanta missed a three at the buzzer, the Warriors headed to the locker room with a 67-42 lead, thanks to 13 points from Curry and 11 each from Wiggins and Buddy Hield.

The third-quarter Warriors didn’t seem to care that they had a 25-point lead ... at least not at first. Green found Trayce Jackson-Davis on a lob to start the action and then, after a stop on the other end, Curry found Jackson-Davis on another lob (which wasn’t converted, but TJD was fouled and made both shots). After a Wiggins bucket, the Dubs had scored six straight to open the half, and opened up a 31-point lead.

And then the collapses that they’ve had in recent games started to taunt the Warriors. The offense went ice cold, and Atlanta chipped away, and chipped away, and chipped away. Visions of another blown lead danced through your head, as the Hawks, after that initial Golden State run, outscored the Warriors 33-17, making it a 15-point game going into the fourth quarter.

That 15-point game became a 13-point game on Atlanta’s first possession, and you took a deep breath. And then the Warriors returned.

They rattled off a 5-0 run and, thanks in large part to some explosive offense from Wiggins, set to work resettling the score. Surely they would have liked to have kept the lead in the 30s and been able to rest their stars for longer, but Atlanta never put up a real threat, and never cut the deficit to single digits. As Wiggins dumped in buckets and Green locked in on defense, the Warriors built up a huge lead again, and coasted to a 120-97 victory.

It was a night defined by efficiency and defense, as the Warriors shot 47.0% from the field and held Atlanta’s potent offense under 100 points. Wiggins had one of his best performances of the season, finishing with a team-high 27 points on 12-for-17 shooting, with seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and no turnovers. Curry, on the other hand, had five turnovers, but that’s excusable when you score 23 points on 7-for-10 shooting, including 4-for-6 from deep (plus 5-for-5 on free throws), and add four rebounds, eight assists, two steals, and a block.

Jackson-Davis finished with a double-double, with 14 points and 11 rebounds, but the star was arguably Green. After taking responsibility for Monday’s loss, Green was on triple-double watch in this game, with nine points, seven rebounds, nine assists, one steal, and two blocks. His defense was a huge part of why he finished a game-high +29. Even with Green finishing a point short of the mark, the Dubs still had six players in double figures, with Hield dropping in 11, and Waters and Jonathan Kuminga netting 10 apiece.

The Warriors improved to 11-3 with the win, including 5-1 at home, and took over sole possession of first place in the Western Conference. They get a day to travel, then take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday at 4:30 p.m. PT in an NBA Cup game.