[ad_1]
Despite roster reinforcements in the form of Draymond Green, the Warriors struggled to make significant improvements on Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks, barely 24 hours after one of their most brutal losses.
24 points behind at one point, the Warriors positioned themselves to make him competitive several times throughout the night, but couldn’t get over the bump, eventually falling to Hawks 124-108 at Chase. Center.
As the Atlanta offense sank and shot 54.8 percent from the ground, the Warriors (22-24) stagnated, despite Andrew Wiggins’ 29 points, and in the home stretch they couldn’t defend without fault.
The loss puts the Warriors on a four-game losing streak, tied for their longest losing streak this season.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ last loss:
Warriors Need More Than Wiggins
Similar to how it makes sense that the Warriors’ defense is substandard without Green, it’s obvious their offense drops a few notches without Steph Curry. He’s their best player and offensive centerpiece, and without it the Warriors lose a lot of power.
Wiggins helped reclaim some of that power against the Hawks.
He scored 29 points on 10 of 19 shots to go with seven rebounds and three assists, and was the only major source of offensive production for the Warriors.
This is not the first time that he has intervened in the absence of Curry.
In Game 1, the Warriors played without Curry against the Grizzlies, Andrew Wiggins went for 40. That night, Golden State didn’t miss a beat without their point guard. But that was because, in addition to Wiggins’ score, two players scored at least 25 points.
Since then, Wiggins has been the closest thing the Warriors have found to be successful on the offensive, but they need more from the rest of the cast. In fact, they’ll need more even after Curry returns.
Defensive struggles continue
While the Warriors could barely make a save against the Kings on Thursday, you might have thought Draymond was sidelined with an illness. He is the defensive anchor, after all.
But those struggles continued against the Hawks on Friday, despite the former defensive player of the year returning to the field.
Against Atlanta, it’s not that the Warriors’ defense was chosen apart by Trae Young and the Hawks. It could have been part of it, but the other part was the lack of effort on Golden State’s part.
They were behind in rotations, defended with little physique and jogged in sets. The Warriors’ home defense was particularly weak, where they allowed the Hawks to score 60 points in the paint.
The Warriors got more involved in the second half, but you had to be strong from the jump.
RELATED: Kerr and Myers United Despite Warriors’ Extent of Mediocrity
James Wiseman bounces back
After a Thursday night performance that left Wiseman’s visibility frustrated, he rebounded well against the Hawks on Friday.
Wiseman looked more comfortable on the field at Chase Center, taking his time getting into position and not forcing his shot.
Ahead of the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he wanted his rookie to play more relaxed as it would result in a more natural game. This is exactly what happened.
He finished with 18 points on 7 of 13 shots and five rebounds.
Download and subscribe to the Dubs Talk podcast
[ad_2]
Source link