The Golden State Warriors hope to complete a brief homestand on a successful note before heading on the road again when they face the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday in San Francisco.
Playing their first home game since Feb. 3, the Warriors put on an impressive show for a national-television audience in a 126-102 home win over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.
The Charlotte game will complete the home portion of a 14-game stretch that began with seven straight on the road and picks up Thursday with the beginning of a five-game trip.
The brief San Francisco stopover has allowed Warriors fans to become acquainted with newcomer Jimmy Butler, who has been the driving force for a resurgent team that has won five of six games since the acquisition.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr is impressed with multiple players performing at a higher level since Butler’s arrival on Feb. 8.
“It’s just easier to make sense of everything when you’ve got a guy like (Butler) who’s out there reading possessions and making the right play over and over again,” Kerr said. “That’s one of the reasons why Jimmy made so much sense for us: because of his basketball IQ, his passing, the way he connects the game at both ends.
“We’ve always been at our best when we can put a lot of IQ next to (Stephen Curry and Draymond Green) to complement the chaos they create with a thoughtful, measured approach that gives us an all-around attack.”
Butler has scored at least 17 points in all six games since joining the Warriors, getting to the free-throw line a total of 55 times. He has made his last 26 foul shots.
The Warriors will be facing the Hornets for the first time this season, but Butler will be seeing them for a third time. In his first of two visits to Charlotte with the Miami Heat early in the campaign, he poured in 26 points, going 11-for-17 at the line. He managed only six points in the next matchup.
The Warriors and Hornets will meet again next Monday in North Carolina.
The Hornets will head home after visiting the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, completing a stretch of nine consecutive road games sandwiching the All-Star break. Recent results indicate they can’t wait to head east.
After a shocking 100-97 road win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 19 and a competitive effort in a loss at Denver the next night, Charlotte absorbed its two worst defeats of the season — 141-88 at Portland on Saturday and 130-88 at Sacramento on Monday.
The Hornets did rest center Mark Williams — he of the failed physical that nixed a trade to the Lakers — against the Kings, so he is likely to face Golden State. But LaMelo Ball, who had 13 points, nine assists and six rebounds in Sacramento, hasn’t played a back-to-back since returning from a sprained left ankle on Feb. 7.
Hornets coach Charles Lee has praised Williams’ attitude since the center was forced out of the Western Conference playoff race and back onto an Eastern lottery-bound team because of concerns over recent back and foot injuries.
“He’s come back even more focused, even more hungry,” Lee said. “It’s been a seamless transition back to the group.”
Williams had 10 points, five rebounds and two steals in 21 minutes at Portland.
–Field Level Media
