Official Game Thread: Hawks - Warriors

[lethalweapon3]

Warriors! Come Out and Play!

(If you would be so kind, though, please leave those baseball bats behind!)

The Golden State Warriors have blazed across the Everglades, and now head north for tonight’s Friday Night showdown with our Peach State Hawks (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN Bay Area). At the risk of a jinx, the Hawks are 7-for-7 in winning Friday night NBA contests this season.

How will they fare against the buzzsaw that has been Stephen Curry of late? Last night, the spicy Curry put up 36 points on 59% shooting and 12 assists as the W’s hung 123 points in regulation against the defending champion Miami HEAT for their seventh straight victory.

Bear in mind, the most points Miami previously coughed up were 119 last week against the Hawks, and that was in overtime, without Dwyane Wade on the floor. The crafter of the #FullSquad meme, David Lee left Chris Bosh looking downright prehistoric, piling on Miami’s half-baked frontline with 32 points and 14 rebounds last night.

Hopefully, after flying north, both of these players’ arms will be tired. But don’t count on it. Although Steph has appeared in just three back-to-back games so far, on those second nights he’s averaging 29.7 PPG and 10.7 APG while shooting 51.7% from the field and 54.8% from three-point land, all season-highs relative to his other game-rest scenarios. His team, though, is just 1-4 overall this year with zero days’ rest, and haven’t had to play in back-to-back contests since December 7, perhaps part of the reason they’ve gotten their groove back.

Curry’s actually been mired in a shooting slump during G-State’s streak (35.4 FG% in the six games before Miami), but he broke out of it in a huge way last night. Still, Coach Mark Jackson is demonstrating to the league that this year’s edition of Golden State no longer must rely on stellar nights from both Splash Brothers, Curry and Klay Thompson, in order to win games.

Neither Curry nor Thompson shot well from the perimeter in Orlando on Tuesday, yet the Warriors cruised to a 23-point halftime lead and a 13-point win over the Magic. Thompson is tied with Dirk Nowitzki and Atlanta’s Kyle Korver with a league-leading 3.5 catch-and-shoot field goals per game.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas Day, with the Warriors in a 6-10 mini-funk, pundits began trying to sound alarm bells about Golden State’s chances of missing out on the postseason altogether in the extra-competitive West. With the streak pushing them back into a sixth-seed at 21-13, the hand-wringing has ceased for now.

The primary factor in the turnaround has been free agent spark Andre Iguodala’s return to form, after sitting several weeks to nurse a strained hamstring. For the first time in his 10-year career, Iguodala (10.5 PPG, lowest since his rookie season) is probably the fourth-or-fifth offensive option in a starting lineup. Yet, he’s rewarding his team with career-high efficiency on the floor (57.3 2FG%; 46.6 3FG%; league-leading 57.6 catch-and-shoot FG%).

Plus, as a trusted ballhandler and playmaker (5.0 APG), he takes a bunch of the defensive pressure off of Curry. Building on the #FullSquad theme, G-State is 16-3 when both Iguodala and Curry take the floor.

Yet what Dre most significantly provides, along with a healthy Andrew Bogut (well-rested for tonight after just 17 minutes versus Miami) and Draymond Green, is the active defensive identity Jackson yearns for. Jackson no longer has to put David Lee, Thompson (38.0 minutes per game, 4^th in NBA), or Harrison Barnes on opposing star wings or forwards hoping they’ll step up their defensive effort.

Opponents are scoring just 98.9 PPG, the lowest per-game average against the Warriors since the sobering days of Eric Musselman (2003-04) while Golden State’s defensive rating (101.1 opponent points per 100 possessions) is the best since the full-throated days of P.J. Carlesimo (1998-99).

The Splash Bros are each hitting threes at over 40 percent, atop the league in three-pointers made and attempted. Lee is right on pace with his offensive production from last year’s All-Star season. And Bogut and Iguodala are contributing career-bests in shooting. The Warriors play at the league’s third-highest pace, rank sixth in field goal percentage (virtually tied with Atlanta, at 46.4 FG%), and third in three-point shooting. So, all of that adds up to a team that ranks… just eighth in the league in scoring… and only seventh in the West? What? How does that happen?

Part of the problem for the Warriors is at the free throw line (72.9 FT%, 25^th in NBA; 71.3 FT% on the road, 27^th in NBA). Their big three scorers are fine, but flow and momentum gets disrupted when their teammates have to go to the line. Six of their seven next-highest-scoring regulars shoot freebies below 70 percent, in the cases of Iguodala (58.3 FT%), Bogut (37.8 FT%), Green (55.6 FT%), and Kent Bazemore (53.8 FT%), way below.

That can create quite a dilemma for Jackson substituting in the middle of close games in crunch time. Defensive rebounding, particularly off missed free throws, could be critical to keeping Atlanta within three-point shooting distance of Golden State.

Also, just because the Warriors get a lot of possessions at the tempo they play, that doesn’t mean they all end in shots. Golden State turns the ball over 16.9 times per game, a volume surpassed only by the very green Philadelphia 76ers. Atlanta should be eager to pick off passes before the reaching-teaching Curry (11.0 PPG on pull-up shots; no other NBA player averages more than 9.0) gets his gun-slinging hands on the basketball. The Hawks must find ways to get Curry (4.1 TO/G) to put the ball on the floor instead.

When they turn the ball over, the first line of defense for the Warrior backcourt is hope Iguodala can catch up to slow the opponents down or break up the fastbreaks. The second tack is to foul ASAP, to prevent opponent breakaways and transition buckets. Golden State commits the second most hacks in the league (22.6 personal fouls per game) while Thompson, the shooting guard, leads the team with 3.2 fouls per game. On offensive possessions, the Hawks must focus on making baskets while drawing contact and converting on trips to the free throw line.

If Iguodala is hounding Korver or Jeff Teague at the perimeter, the small forward (be it Cartier Martin, or DeMarre Carroll) may be open for cuts to the basket.

Benefiting from a day of rest, Atlanta’s bigs (Paul Millsap, tonight’s first-time starter Pero Antić, Elton Brand, Gustavo Ayón) must seize the rebounding edge away. Bogut (10.2 RPG) and Lee (9.8 RPG) pile up lots of boards, but according to player-tracking data, not a lot of them are contested.

Scoring in transition, finding open slashers in the halfcourt, making and-1 baskets and free throws, boxing out and fighting for boards… if they do these things, the Hawks have a chance to become only the third team in the East with a winning record against Western Conference opponents (currently 6-6, and victors in three of their last four).

Atlanta has just nine games under their belt against above-.500 teams, fewest in the league. But even without Al Horford in tow, they can improve on their 3-6 record tonight if they can take advantage of Golden State whenever they get sluggish.

Go Hawks!

~lw3

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[lethalweapon3]

Here's hoping his game tonight is scattered, covered, smothered...

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~lw3

[Atlantaholic]

Getting GS in the second of a back to back plus at home gives us a fighting chance. Hopefully we can steal this one. Teague needs to be relentless today on offense and put pressure on Curry on that end of the floor. We'll need both Teague and Millsap to play like stars tonight.

[DJlaysitup]

Awesome stuff as usual lw3..

"War-eee-ooors...come out and play-eee-aaay"

Should be an interesting game...they have the "studs"....Steph will be a handful for J-T.

Expecting full participation in the Chatroom tonight...GO HAWKS !!!

Edited January 3, 2014 by DJlaysitup

[Guest]

I am SHOCKED that there is no mention of the Championship Belt.

http://nbachampionshipbelt.com/

First time we are up. "I coulda been a contender!"

[Guest]

Awesome stuff as usual lw3..

"War-eee-ooors...come out and play-eee-aaay"

Should be an interesting game...they have the "studs"....Steph will be a handful for J-T.

Expecting full participation in the Chatroom tonight...GO HAWKS !!!

Don't get your hopes up, I hear it is going to be a lame chat.

I've learned my lesson on chatting and multitasking. Too many other things going on tonight so I will sit this one out except for a random mention in there right now.

[Guest]

Teague better be ready. If he can't do anything on defense with Curry he better be in attack mode on offense to force Curry to work.

[benhillboy]

Korver outshoots Curry, we win in overtime. Let's Go.

[gsuteke]

This is not good basketball.

[benhillboy]

At he half, its looking more like Antić out shooting Thompson in an regulation win. I'll take it. We can score too easily on them. They don't want to scramble to that last pass or cover that last screen, and we usually have another 5 seconds and another swing pattern in the back pocket by the time they give up. Lou been shooting like a dog. Open shots way off. If he ain't careful Mack gonna eat some of those minutes with the 3rd highest A:TO ratio in the league.

Edited January 4, 2014 by benhillboy

[DrReality]

Got to hang on in the 4th

[taz]

I'm just kidding butAl Horfwho?

[JRid]

Another close game. Hope we can pull it off. Did Korver get a 3? I didn't see one, but I missed a little bit of the game.

[taz]

He hit one early in the game

[benhillboy]

Man come on.

[willthepureshooter]

Dumbass coaching decision to put the ball in Macks hand when Teague is the quicker guard. The f*** are you thinking Bud!!!

[BackForThe2ndTime]

DAMN

[taz]

Fun game

[Ruckus]

WTF was Pero thinking on that inbounds.

[MrMeltdown]

Just had better players. Curry can turn it over 8 times and they still win because of talent and too much firepower for us and a dumb play by Antić.