The Hawks can shoot the damn ball. That was the big lesson from Atlanta's 124-116 win over the Warriors in a game between the two best teams in the NBA.
The first battle between the two teams improbably at the top of the NBA standings lived up to its billing. In the end, it was the East-leading Hawks that sunk the West-leading Warriors with a barrage of three-pointers. Seven players scored in double figures to lead Atlanta to a 124-116 victory.
This was an offensive display for the ages, but the Hawks were just a little bit better. The Hawks shot 15-27 on three-pointers and held off every Warriors run with moonballs from distance. They overcame foul trouble by Al Horford and a marvelous shooting display of their own from Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to come away with the win. Atlanta moves to 42-9, while Golden State falls to 39-9.
After a tight first half, the Hawks made the first move, going on a 12-3 run to begin the third quarter. Kyle Korver hit his fourth three coming off a screen and Jeff Teague stripped Thompson in the backcourt to get another layup. Aided by Horford's fourth foul, the Warriors rallied and tied the game again with four minutes left in the third quarter on a banked Curry three.
But he Hawks regained control by a slim margin at the end of the third thanks to two Mike Scott left-wing threes and carried that momentum into the fourth quarter. Warriors coach Steve Kerr tried playing without Curry and Thompson for a short stretch and got burned. A three and pull-up jumper by Dennis Schroeder pushed the Hawks' lead back to eight with 9:12 remaining and forced Kerr to use a timeout.
It worked, at least temporarily. The Warriors got stops and then got their chance to pull even closer when Horford picked up his fifth foul charging into Draymond Green. The play also yielded a technical foul and put Horford on the bench with just under seven minutes remaining.
But Golden State couldn't rally from there and was soon hit by a finale barrage of threes, a fitting end of a game between two of the best shooting teams in recent NBA history. Scott hit his third three of the game after darting to the top of the key at the end of the shot clock and Korver nailed his fifth of the contest in a similar situation to give the Hawks a nine-point lead.
The Warriors cut that back down to six with under two minutes left and would have cut it to three if Harrison Barnes could have nailed a wide-open corner trey. But he missed, and the Hawks put the game away for good on the next possession when DeMarre Carroll cut in front of Thompson for a layup.
3 things we learned
1. Switching doesn't work against the Hawks either
As the Hawks kept racking up victories, a school of thought developed on how to stop them. Rather than try to fight through every screen in a fruitless attempt to keep up with Korver off the ball or contain Teague in the pick and roll, some argued it made more sense to switch assignments and bait the Hawks into going at mismatches. At least this strategy prevents the Hawks from kicking their legendary flow into high gear.
With their surplus of 6'7 wings, the Warriors seemed to offer the best test case for this theory. And as usual, the Warriors constantly took advantage of their interchangeability, trading assignments on the weakside and even letting Curry guard Millsap in the post at times.
It ... didn't work.
While the Warriors were able to slow the Hawks at times in the first half, Atlanta learned to stay patient and wait for the chance to find the mismatch they needed. It wasn't necessarily the obvious one in the post either, though they were willing to get Millsap isolated if needed. More often than not, the Hawks succeeded by just running their normal offense and forcing Golden State to have to coordinate multiple switches in a row. Eventually, the Warriors were a step late and the Hawks took advantage. Atlanta also struck in transition, the very area where it's most important to maintain pinpoint communication.
It also helped that they hit everything. The Warriors made many of their looks tough, but the Hawks nailed 57 percent of their threes anyway. No defense would have worked against a Hawks team shooting that well.
2. The Hawks have no weak links
Look at the balance!
The list of heroes is endless. Kent Bazemore's shooting and athleticism kept the Hawks within striking distance early in the first half when the Warriors were leading. Carroll played great defense even as Thompson hit tough shots. Dennis Schroeder gave the Hawks a lift with five critical points at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Scott hit three huge three-pointers, punished switches inside and forced Andrew Bogut off the floor with his shooting.
By contrast, the Warriors were largely a two-man show. Thompson and Curry combined for 55, but the rest of the Warriors provided little. Draymond Green grabbed 20 rebounds, but couldn't contain Millsap and wasn't the threat from the perimeter he was earlier in the year. Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights failed to make a significant impact off the bench. David Lee's horrendous defense was mostly responsible for Scott getting started. Bogut was elite defensively in the first half, but nowhere to be found in the second.
Atlanta's most dangerous quality is that it's impossible to key in on one player. Now, the Warriors know.
3. These teams can shoot the damn ball
The future of the NBA was on display the whole night. Eight of the 10 players freely fired from three-point range and the two big men mostly were there to facilitate those shots. The Hawks kept pace in the first half by hitting their threes; the Warriors kept pace in the third quarter by hitting their threes. Ultimately, the Hawks won because they hit more threes and prevented the Warriors from launching enough threes in the fourth quarter.
Once upon a time, NBA players were great shooters if they made 35 percent of their shots from distance. These days, 40 percent is nothing special. We will soon see an NBA where every team plays like the Hawks and Warriors, launching contested looks while making a great percentage on them.
from SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1Kqp3CJ
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