The Hawks and Warriors linked up in San Francisco with Atlanta looking to pick up their third straight win. Without Kristaps Porzingis and Zaccharie Risacher, the Hawks rolled with Vit Krejci and Onyeka Okongwu in the starting lineup.
Jalen Johnson was cooking early and often. Here he dined on the cookies served up by Okongwu:
CJ McCollum made his debut for the Hawks, and he didn’t waste any time getting on the board:
After one quarter, it was a close contest with the Warriors leading by one, 28-27.
Corey Kispert came into the game at the start of the second quarter for the first time as a Hawk. But they had a rough time getting going that period, and the Warriors jumped out to a 37-29 lead.
Atlanta stormed back, however, using blocks and deflections to spring a streak of defensive stops.
At the end of the half, the Hawks used Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s two triples and CJ McCollum’s buzzer beater turnaround fadeaway to head into halftime on a high note, 59-53.
Both Alexander-Walker and Johnson tied as the high scorer to this point with 17 points.
Atlanta came out sharp in the third half, jumping out to a 70-58 lead at one point. They were hit with an immediate 10-0 run from Golden State channeling their circa 2017 third quarter explosions.
But towards the end of the quarter, the Hawks went en fuego — spurred by a scoring burst from Luke Kennard:
After three, the Hawks grabbed control of the contest with a 94-78 edge. Of course, they needed to finish the deal lest it all be for naught.
The Hawks got the message and absolutely rained down fire from the sky to jump out to a 106-81 lead. Luke Kennard still couldn’t feel his face, and Okongwu joined him shortly afterwards:
After that point, the Warriors slowly crawled back into the contest. Coach Snyder decided to close the game with CJ McCollum in for Vit Krejci with the starting lineup.
Atlanta managed to finish the fight — with help from Steve Kerr tossing in the towel rather early — 124-111.
Luke Kennard had his best night as a Hawk with 22 points on 8-for-1o shooting (6-for-8 from three). Jalen Johnson added 23 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists.
The Hawks now take their three-game winning streak into Los Angeles to take on the Lakers on Tuesday night.