Everything about the Golden State Warriors, from their personnel to their statistical rankings, confirms they are awful at defending and rebounding.
Then again, Wednesday was their first game against the Hawks this season, so perhaps they just needed the right opponent to show they can do both.
The Warriors shut down the Hawks’ offense, dominated on the glass early and played at a pace the Hawks couldn’t match while winning 85-82 at Philips Arena.
Golden State (14-18) played without star point guard Stephen Curry and lost
"In the first half we were a step slow with everything we did," Hawks coach Larry Drew said. "They played last night and got embarrassed. We had to expect their ‘A' game even without Curry. We just didn't respond."
Though they rallied in the fourth quarter after trailing by as many as 13 points, the Hawks wouldn’t have needed a last gasp if they could score against a bad defense. They shot 34 percent from the field, with blown short attempts and bad shot selection both culprits, and were beat 53-49 on the boards.
The Hawks (20-15) lost for the ninth time in their past 13 games. They have two home games left before leaving on a six-game, 10-night road trip that wraps up at the trade deadline.
Atlanta looked sluggish early in its first game following last weekend's All-Star break.
"Granted, [they had] the layoff, but, no excuse, man," Hawks guard Joe Johnson said. "They beat us to a lot of hustle plays. They got a lot of easy baskets. We shot a lot of jump shots and we weren't making them, so it was tough."
The Hawks’ last lead was 23-22. They gained a tie in the final minute, but couldn’t get the key stop they needed.
Point guard Jeff Teague set up consecutive layups by Zaza Pachulia, and Josh Smith and Marvin Williams made a free throw to cut the lead to 72-71. The Hawks pulled within 74-72 on Smith’s free throw, 76-74 on Teague’s driving score and 78-76 when Pachulia made two free throws with 90 seconds left.
The Hawks finally got a stop, forcing David Lee to miss a hook shot, and Pachulia scored on a putback to tie the score at 78-78. But after a Warriors timeout with five seconds on the shot clock, Lee had another driving score for an 80-78 lead with 30.1 seconds left.
The Warriors doubled-teamed Johnson, who passed out of it. The ball ended up at the top of the key with Teague, who drove to the basket but missed a floater.
Golden State’s Nate Robinson and Monta Ellis each made two free throws in the final 11 seconds to hold off the Hawks.
Johnson was back in the lineup after missing two games last week with knee tendinitis. He made his first shot, a 20-foot jumper, but missed his next seven field-goal attempts on his way to 18 points and 6-of-17 shooting.
"It felt pretty good," Johnson said of the knee. "I wouldn't say I'm 100 percent but I was decent."
Golden State played much of the night with small lineups that featured forwards Lee or Ekpe Udoh at center, mitigating the Hawks’ lack of depth with the size at the position. Yet the Hawks couldn’t keep the Warriors off the glass, missed several shots near the basket and looked plodding against Golden State’s up-tempo style.
After the Hawks raced to a 10-2 lead, the Warriors rallied behind Ellis and Lee. Their bench players took control in the second quarter.
Reserve guard Klay Thompson, working against Willie Green, scored eight points during a 10-0 run to start the quarter. The Warriors still led 38-30 when the starters for both teams returned, and Lee scored three consecutive baskets to help extend the lead to 46-33.
The Hawks trailed 48-38 at halftime, but quickly rallied. Johnson shook off his slow start and scored seven points as the Hawks used an 11-4 run to trim the lead to 52-49, and the Hawks trailed 64-61 entering the fourth quarter.
