Al Horford took the blame.
The center was not, by any means, the only Hawks player to struggle offensively against the Warriors in a lopsided 114-95 loss Wednesday night. His numbers were the most glaring.
Horford finished 4 of 18 from the field for eight points. He missed his first six shots and was 1 of 12 through three quarters. At that point, the Warriors held a commanding lead in a battle of conference leaders with the best records in the NBA.
“On offense I couldn’t score,” Horford said. “I take the blame.”
The Hawks (53-15) shot 31.7 percent (20 of 63) from the field in the first three quarters and were in serious jeopardy of their worst shooting game of the season. The bench helped the Hawks close with a final percentage of 35.5 percent (31 of 87), ahead of their low of 33 percent set against the Raptors on Feb. 20.
“I thought Al had a lot of good looks,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “His were shots that we’ll take pretty much every night, but some nights you just have one of those nights where they’re not going down. He can finish at a higher rate in the paint too, but I thought their (defensive) contest and their effort was good, so it’s a little bit of both. He had a lot of good looks though.”
Reserve Dennis Schroder (1 of 12, eight points) and starters Paul Millsap (6 of 14, 16 points), DeMarre Carroll (5 of 12, 16 points) and Kent Bazemore (1 of 6, five points) and Jeff Teague (4 of 8, 12 points and two assists) all added to the Hawks’ offensive woes and the Warriors won their league-leading 37th game this season by double digits. They led by as many as 29 points in the Hawks’ fifth blowout loss of the season.
Horford was held out of Monday’s game at the Kings for rest. He said he wouldn’t use the off day as an excuse for being out of rhythm.
“I’m not sure,” Horford said. “I don’t want to point fingers. I’ll take the blame. I know that I wasn’t as good as I needed to be. And that’s that.”
While the Haws couldn’t score, the Warriors could hardly miss.
The Warriors (54-13) shot 52.4 percent but their numbers were near 60 percent for much of the game. As the Hawks concentrated on stopping Warriors All-Star guard Stephen Curry with a trapping defense, he found teammates who connected. Harrison Barnes scored a game and season-high 25 points on a career-high-tying 11 made field goals (11-of-13). Andre Iguodala scored a season-high 21 points and Draymond Green finished with 18 points, including five 3-pointers. Curry had 16 points and 12 assists.
The Warriors had out a season-high 39 assists on 44 made field goals, assisting on an NBA season-high 88.6 percent of their baskets.
“I thought they missed some shots early in the game when they were open,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “First part of the game they were getting better shots than we were. They execute, I think, better than any other team in the league just with their ball movement, their flow and getting the ball to multiple players in their offense. I thought they got some good shots and missed them and that obviously helped us quite a bit, but then our defense picked up from there. Sometimes when a team gets off to a slow start and then you get in them it’s a little harder to find your groove.”
The Hawks finished their season-long six-game road trip at the Thunder on Friday. They will go into the game with magic numbers remaining at three to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and one to clinch the Southeast Division. The Hawks can also secure their first division title since the 1993-94 season with a Wizards loss.
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