The depleted Warriors just didn’t have enough against the Hawks.
The second-highest scoring game of Stephen Curry‘s legendary career wasn’t enough to lift his team to a road win over the in-flux Atlanta Hawks. Disappointing as Saturday’s loss was, you can’t exactly find too much fault with the Golden State Warriors. Once the extra period tipped off, the sorely undermanned Dubs just didn’t have anything left in their collective tank.
Golden State fell to Atlanta 141-134 at State Farm Arena, squandering an epic 60-point performance from Curry by falling apart in overtime. He dropped 22 points in the fourth quarter to keep the Warriors afloat, including the final 13 points of regulation. A backdoor layup and two more ridiculous triples from Curry weren’t enough to keep up with the Hawks after that, Golden State doomed by its mounting absences on the second night of a road back-to-back.
“Steph was incredible. I mean, what a performance,” Steve Kerr said after the game, shaking his head. “I just feel so bad for him and for our guys, because they’re battling. Obviously we’re shorthanded, back-to-back. I thought we competed like crazy the whole game and just couldn’t get over the hump. But Steph was sublime.”
Depleted Dubs waste Stephen Curry’s ‘sublime’ performance
The Dubs entered Saturday’s action still down Moses Moody, Gary Payton II and Chris Paul, with Dario Saric joining them on the shelf for the second straight game due to illness. Andrew Wiggins didn’t play in the second half after suffering a left foot injury late in the first, then Jonathan Kuminga fouled out with 1:06 remaining in regulation.
Without both forward linchpins of their vaunted new starting lineup, the Warriors were relegated to running double-teams at Trae Young high up the floor in overtime, yielding consistently quality looks for Atlanta. One of Klay Thompson’s least efficient and most head-scratching shooting nights of the season—4-of-19 overall, including 2-of-13 from deep on some questionable attempts—came at the worst time. Dejounte Murray started roasting Brandin Podziemski with isolation jumpers, and the Warriors’ makeshift supporting cast couldn’t respond on the other end.
Kerr was as frustrated as you see him on the postgame podium, emotionally spent after the Warriors let yet another winnable game slip through their grasp—this one wasting a Curry masterpiece. Still, Golden State’s coach at least allowed for some optimism as his ever-depleted team trudges toward the All-Star break.
“They’re competing, they’re playing together,” Kerr said of the Warriors. “Just gotta keep moving, keep moving forward.”
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