Despite receiving reinforcements on duty in the form of Draymond Green, the Warriors struggled to make significant improvements on Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks, just 24 hours after one of their most brutal defeats.
After losing 24 points at one point, the Warriors put themselves in a position to make them competitive a few times during the night, but failed to overcome the obstacle, falling to Hawks 124-108 at the Chase Center.
While Atlanta’s attack flowed and kicked 54.8 percent off the ground, the Warriors (22-24) were stagnant, despite Andrew Wiggins having 29 points, and at the end of the straight they could not defend themselves without a foul.
This defeat puts the Warriors in a four-game losing streak, tied for their longest losing streak this season.
Here are three lessons from the Warriors’ last defeat:
Warriors need more than Wiggins
Similar to how it makes sense that the Warriors’ defense is inferior without Green, it is obvious that his attack falls a few steps without Steph Curry. He is your best player and offensive centerpiece, and without it, the Warriors lose a lot of power.
Wiggins helped to regain some of that power against the Hawks.
He scored 29 points out of 10 out 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 intensified Curry’s absence.
In the first game, the Warriors played without Curry against the Grizzlies, Andrew Wiggins went to 40. That night, the Golden State did not lose the goal without its point guard. But that’s 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 consistent success in attack, but they need more from the rest of the players. In fact, they will need more, even after Curry’s return.
Defensive fights continue
When the Warriors barely managed to make a stop against the Kings on Thursday, you may have attributed this to Draymond because of an illness. After all, he is the defensive anchor.
But those fights continued on Friday against the Hawks, despite having the former Defense Player of the Year back on the court.
Against Atlanta, it wasn’t that the Warriors’ defense was being destroyed by Trae Young and the Hawks. That may have been part of it, but the other part was Golden State’s lack of effort.
They were delayed in rotations, defended with little physicality and ran on sets. The Warriors’ inner defense was particularly weak, allowing the Hawks to score 60 points in the painting.
The Warriors engaged more in the second half, but needed to be strong from the jump.
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James Wiseman recovers
After a performance late on Thursday that left Wiseman’s visibility frustrated, he recovered well against the Hawks on Friday.
Wiseman seemed more comfortable on the Chase Center court, taking a long time to position himself and not forcing the kick.
Before the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he wanted his newcomer to play more relaxed because it would translate into a more natural game. This is exactly what happened.
He finished with 18 points from 7 of 13 shots and five rebounds.
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