Golden State Warriors forward Dorell Wright was on a roll. He
was going so well offensively that even when he missed, he scored.
If only he hadn’t been rolling alone Wednesday night. The Warriors
had their three-game win streak snapped, falling 103-93 to the
Atlanta Hawks. Wright had a career-high 32 points to go with 11
rebounds.
ATLANTA
Golden State Warriors forward Dorell Wright was on a roll. He was going so well offensively that even when he missed, he scored.
If only he hadn’t been rolling alone Wednesday night. The Warriors had their three-game win streak snapped, falling 103-93 to the Atlanta Hawks.
Wright had a career-high 32 points to go with 11 rebounds.
“It wasn’t a really good shooting night for us,” guard Monta Ellis said after totaling 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting. “(Wright) played wonderful tonight. He was everywhere on the floor. We just didn’t give him any help tonight.”
Wright (13 for 21 from the floor) had more than a third of the Warriors’ points as the rest of the squad shot 38.7 percent. Point guard Stephen Curry was 4 for 13. Forward David Lee was 5 for 12. The reserves were 6 for 17 shooting.
On top of that, Atlanta had little trouble shooting, knocking down 51.2 percent of its shots.
The Warriors _ playing their sixth straight game without starting center Andris Biedrins and their fifth straight without backup center Dan Gadzuric _ were schooled inside by the bigger, stronger and more athletic big men of Atlanta.
Al Horford had 21 points and 15 rebounds. Josh Smith had 22 points and 10 rebounds. Zaza Pachilia had 11 points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
“They play at a high level,” Warriors coach Keith Smart said of the Hawks’ big men. “Battle-tested, big guys who have gone through wars in the East, gone through wars in the playoffs. … Our size, not having enough of it tonight, really hurt us.”
The Warriors (12-19) did have an advantage at small forward, as Wright took it to the Hawks (21-13) all night. After a 13-4 Atlanta run, Golden State trailed 65-53 fewer than five minutes into the third quarter. But Wright got his team going again by nailing a 3-pointer. It sparked a 10-2 run, a spurt Wright capped with a runner in the lane, closing the gap to 67-63.
Golden State trailed by 82-77 with 9:26 left in the fourth quarter after Wright was credited with a tip-in. His driving layup missed, but a Hawk tipped it in and Wright, the nearest Warrior, got credit for the basket. But the Warriors managed just four points over the next five-plus minutes. During that stretch, Golden State went 2 for 9 from the field with three turnovers.
By the time Smith dunked home an alley-oop pass, putting the Hawks up 94-81 inside of four minutes left, it was clear the Warriors weren’t going to have enough to pull it out.
Wins figured to be scarce on this five-game road trip, which features four teams with winning records. Charlotte, the only below-.500 team on this trip, is 2-0 under interim coach Paul Silas, and his top assistant, former Warriors assistant coach Stephen Silas, knows the Warriors like the back of his hand.
Wright, however, made sure his team had something to hang its hat on despite the loss to begin the road trip. His performance was evidence of his development scoring in a variety of ways, which adds an element to the Warriors offense.
“I’m trying to change everything,” said Wright, who has scored 20 points in back-to-back games for the first time in his NBA career. “I don’t want to be a spot-up shooter because I have so much more I can offer to this team. I need to use that a little more, and the past few games I’ve been doing that.”
Notes:
When the final horn sounded, Curry put his hands on his head and gasped for air. Already behind on his conditioning, Curry was contending with flu-like symptoms. “It’s the first time I tried to play sick in awhile,” said Curry, who had 12 assists, five rebounds and three turnovers in 29 minutes. “Especially missing six games before (with an ankle injury), I was already a little bit out of shape. That put me back a little bit. But I tried to fight through it. It was just tough trying to get going with my body feeling the way it did.” … Forward Brandan Wright saw his first action since Nov. 13. He checked in during the third quarter and played 3:36, scoring his only basket _ a lob from Reggie Williams. Wright missed most of the last six weeks because of a lower back strain.
— Story by Marcus Thompson II, The Oakland Tribune
