ATLANTA – Stephen Curry and Draymond Green missed Friday’s blowout loss to the Toronto Raptors due to injuries. Both players returned to the lineup today, but it wasn’t enough to avoid another loss. The Warriors ended their East Coast road trip falling to the Atlanta Hawks 117-111 on Easter Sunday.
Clint Capela finished with 24 points and 18 rebounds while Danilo Galinari led the Hawks with 25 points off the bench for their third straight win, sixth straight at home.
The Hawks complete the season series sweep over Golden State. The Warriors record their third straight loss and seventh of the last eight games.
“We were really looking forward to bouncing back tonight but that didn’t happen,” said Curry.
Curry scored a game-high 37 points on 12-of-23 shooting from the field while still dealing with a tailbone contusion. Despite Curry’s 20th 30-point game of the season, he committed eight of Golden State’s 16 turnovers for the game.
“We were competing all game long,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said after scoring 20 points and grabbing a team-high 11 rebounds.
Andrew Wiggins added 16 points and five rebounds. The Warriors never got off to a great start, they opened the game 1-of-12 from three-point range before Wiggins drilled back-to-back 3s to tie the game 40-40 midway through the second quarter.
Golden State shot a dreadful 10-of-40 from three-point range on the night.
Green, who was a late scratch against the Raptors, flirted with a triple-double. He finished with 11 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds in his return.
In the first half, the game was close and neither team held a double-digit lead. The Warriors took a 59-57 lead into halftime while shooting 54.3-percent from the field holding the Hawks to 44-percent from the floor.
The second half was no different. Curry’s triple gave Golden State an 81-78 lead going into the fourth quarter. The game’s frenetic pace forecasted a tight finish between the two teams.
There were 16 lead changes and 17 ties tonight. But it was a Kevin Huerter three-pointer from the right corner that gave the Hawks a 100-98 lead that would not be relinquished. Huerter finished with 10 points.
Tony Snell hit a three-pointer to extend Atlanta’s lead to 103-98, while Lou Williams hit a fadeaway jumper from the left side to push the lead to 105-98 late in the fourth. Williams finished with 15 points off the bench.
The Warriors troubled areas today were in two places: the free throw line and bench points.
Golden State was called for 26 personal fouls, a season-high for the Warriors. That led to 45 free throws by the Hawks. Atlanta shot 35-of-45 from the charity stripe, while Golden State went to the free throw line 21 times, knocking down 15.
“We lost the game because we fouled over, and over, and over again,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. “It was number one tonight. We have been consistently bad in the free throw allowed category.”
Galinari and Williams alone outscored Golden State’s bench 55-19.
Following an off day on Monday, the Warriors return home Tuesday to face another tough opponent from the Eastern Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks.
Photo by Warriors/Twitter
