The rematch was no match.
The Warriors drubbed the Hawks 114-95 in a rematch battle of the top two teams in the NBA Wednesday night at Oracle Arena. The best of the Eastern and Western Conferences split the season series, each winning on their home court.
The Hawks (53-15, 23-11 road) had a three-game winning streak snapped with the loss in a game they shot a near season-worst 35.6 percent (31 of 87) from the field. Their previous worse was 33.0 percent (21 of 88) against the Raptors on Feb. 20.
The Hawks failed to clinch the Southeast Division, with a magic number remaining at one, with the loss and the Wizards win over the Jazz. The magic number to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference remained at three games after the Cavaliers and Raptors each won.
Al Horford was 4 of 18 from the field for the Hawks. He missed his first six shots and was 1 of 12 after three quarters. DeMarre Carroll and Paul Millsap led the Hawks with 16 points apiece. Carroll also added 12 rebounds. Jeff Teague was the other double-digit scorer with 12 points.
“A lot of good looks,” Horford said. “My teammates were finding me and I was just missing. I was missing. I felt like we played well in the first half. If I would have made a couple of those shots, it could have been a little different. We could have had better momentum.
“On offense I couldn’t score. I take the blame.”
The Warriors (54-13) won their third straight overall and 10th at home to improve on their league-best record.
Harrison Barnes led the way with a game-high 25 points. Andre Iguodala had 21 points and Draymond Green added 18 points, including 5 of 7 shooting from 3-point range. Stephen Curry had 16 points and 12 assists.
“They’ve got a great player in Steph Curry and so you put a lot of effort and attention to him, sometimes other guys get good looks,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “That’s why they are a good team. They’ve got guys who are around good players and can make good plays themselves. It’s not that much different than any other night.”
The Warriors finished by shooting 52.4 percent and had season-high 39 assists on 44 field goals, assisting on an NBA season-high 88.6 percent of their baskets.
“It was simple, when a team gets 39 assists on you and shoots 52 percent that sums it up,” Carroll said. “We didn’t do what we needed to do on defense. You can live with making and missing shots but defensively we have to get down and get more gritty and more dirty.”
Both teams played without their All-Star shooting guards as the Hawks missed Kyle Korver (broken nose) and the Warriors were without Klay Thompson (right ankle sprain).
The Warriors led 59-47 at intermission, their biggest advantage of the first half. Curry, Barnes, Bogut and Iguodala all had 11 points following the first two quarters as the Warriors shot 58.5 percent (24 of 41). The Hawks, who had three more attempts and nine less field goals, shot 34.1 percent (15 of 44). Al Horford was 1 of 11 from the field through the half.
The Hawks stayed in the game by causing 11 first-half turnovers, including nine steals. Jeff Teague had three steals in the first 3:43 of the game.
It got worse – much worse – for the Hawks in the third quarter. The Warriors up their lead to 83-64 by the end of the period and the Hawks again struggled. Carroll hit back-to-back 3-pointers to pull the Hawks within eight points, 69-61, with 4:55 remaining in the third. They would not score another field goal and converted just 3 of 6 free-throw attempts. In total, the Hawks were 5 of 19 from the field in the period. Horford scored a basket with 10:03 left to break the field-goal drought at 7:02.
“They played good,” Teague said. “We didn’t.”
The Hawks wrap up a six-game, 11-day road trip Friday at the Thunder. They are 3-2 following the loss.
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