Hawks at Warriors
The top two teams in the NBA square off on Wednesday when the Eastern Conference-leading Atlanta Hawks visit the Western Conference-leading Golden State Warriors. The two teams are cruising toward landing No. 1 seeds for the playoffs and Atlanta possesses a league-best road mark of 23-10, while Golden State has a dominating 30-2 home record. This is the second and final regular-season meeting between the teams and the Hawks prevailed 124-116 at home on Feb. 6.
Atlanta has won 10 of its last 12 games after winning at Sacramento 110-103 on Monday but veteran forward Elton Brand said his squad has its sights on the Warriors. “We’re looking forward to it,” Brand told reporters. “No. 1 in the East against No. 1 in the West on national TV. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Golden State posted a 108-105 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday and the Warriors have passed last season’s win total of 51.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, SportSouth (Atlanta), CSN Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE HAWKS (53-14): The win in Sacramento allowed Atlanta to set a new franchise record for road victories, surpassing the 22 road wins from 1986-87. The road success has been one of the hallmarks of the Hawks’ surprising rise to best team in the East. “Winning on the road is something that’s really hard in our league,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters. “I think it takes a little bit of mental toughness and you have to have more attention to detail, you have to be more together. Things are not going to always go your way on the road. It’s important to establish that you can win on the road.”
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (53-13): Shooting guard Klay Thompson will miss the contest and be sidelined up to 10 days after spraining his right ankle while scoring 26 points against the Lakers. Thompson briefly exited during Monday’s contest before re-entering the game and the injury worsened after he left the arena. “He came back and played and a lot of the time, the adrenaline just carries you through during a game and I think that’s probably what happened, but he didn’t re-injure it when he went back out,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters. “It’s just a normal postgame swelling and it turned out to be a little more than expected.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. In last month’s meeting, PG Jeff Teague scored a team-best 23 for the Hawks and F Draymond Green grabbed a career-best 20 rebounds for the Warriors.
2. Atlanta SG Kyle Korver (broken nose) will miss his second straight game.
3. Golden State SF Harrison Barnes is 7-of-20 over the past three games.