The Golden State Warriors hope to continue their homecourt roll – and get some help in the process – when they host the struggling Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.
Coming off a 1-5 trip that dropped them three games under .500, the Warriors have opened an eight-game homestand with four consecutive wins, all without injured stars Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins.
The defending champs, now a league-best 16-2 at home, expect Wiggins to return Monday from a 13-game absence that began with a strained adductor and has been extended by an illness. Golden State has gone 6-7 over that stretch – 5-1 at home and 1-6 on the road.
The most recent of the wins came Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers, a game the Warriors trailed 105-98 with 6:59 to go before finishing with a 20-7 flurry.
Donte DiVincenzo hit a key 3-pointer with 24 seconds remaining to secure the win and cap what has become a trademark all-around contribution with nine points, nine rebounds, four assists and four steals.
“Donte is an amazing part of our team,” teammate Jordan Poole said. “Just being able to play on the court with him — to share minutes with him and just trust that he is going to make the right play, that he is going to be aggressive, that he is going to make big shots and make big plays and make big stops — is huge.
“He is going to be really big for us all season.”
The Warriors will be seeing the Hawks for the first time as Atlanta embarks on a week-long California tour. The club packed a three-game losing streak, including a 130-121 home loss Friday to the Los Angeles Lakers, against whom the Hawks will get a rematch later this week.
Getting on the road might be a good thing for the Hawks, whose two-game homestand was engulfed in rumors about coach Nate McMillan possibly considering stepping down.
That’s what a report in The Athletic insisted was occurring behind the scenes, and McMillan was quick to refute it.
“Look, at the end of the year, I’ll do as I’ve always done: Talk with my family and see if I still have that flame, that fire to continue next season,” he said. “That’s the end of the season. All of us think about retiring, but that’s at the end of the season. So we’ll move on past that.”
The Hawks now employ two guards who have tormented Golden State.
Trae Young had 28- and 33-point performances when the Hawks split the two-game series against the Warriors last year. Atlanta won 121-110 at home in March after losing 127-113 in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, the Hawks have since added Dejounte Murray, who faced the Warriors 10 times as a member of the San Antonio Spurs and scored 19 or more points in half of them. He put up 23 and 19 points in Spurs wins at San Francisco last season.
Young had 29 points and Murray 20 in Friday’s loss to the Lakers.
–Field Level Media
