The Golden State Warriors bounced back from an embarrassing loss on Saturday night when they beat the Clippers in Los Angeles. The Warriors will continue their pursuit of the record, 73 wins, on Monday night when they take on the Atlanta Hawks in the fourth game of a seven game road trip. The Warriors come in at 49-5 which is number one in the West while the Hawks come in at 31-26 which is sixth best in the East.
The Warriors had it handed to them on Friday night by the Blazers in a 32 point loss but like many had suspected they bounced back with a win at Staples Center over the Clippers. Overall the Warriors have won 12 of their last 13 games and will look to continue that against Atlanta.
Stephen Curry is the frontrunner for MVP yet again this year and there are so many numbers that paint his season in an extremely impressive light. The most impressive number though, might be the fact that he leads the Warriors in field goal percentage at close to 51 percent. Over 50 percent for a guard is an insane number. It is made even more insane when you realize more than half of his field goal attempts have come from the three-point line (561). His season has been truly outstanding.
On the injury front for the Warriors Festus Ezeli remains out after knee surgery. The latest update on him is that he is "a little bit ahead of schedule". Starting center Andrew Bogut missed the last game with an Achilles injury and is listed as questionable for this one. Anderson Varejao has been signed by the Warriors but he will not make his debut on Monday. With the possibility of all three Warriors centers being unavailable in this one Draymond Green will likely start at center and Brandon Rush will move into the starting lineup in that case.
The Hawks looked like they might blow their team up at the trade deadline and start over but they decided against that. Instead they look like a good bet to make the playoffs despite the fact that they have lost four of their last five games including Saturday night against the Bucks. The Hawks will face a tough task as they try to end the little skid they are currently on.
Paul Millsap has been the Hawks best player, by far, all season long and his numbers prove it. Millsap leads the team in points per game (17.8) rebounds per game (8.7) steals per game (1.8) and PER (22.2). Millsap was named to his third consecutive All-Star game this season and he was certainly worthy as he has consistently stuffed the stat sheet night after night.
From an injury standpoint the Hawks will be without Tiago Splitter who is done for the year after deciding to undergo hip surgery. Some good news though, is that Jeff Teague is expected to play after injuring his wrist in the Hawks loss to Milwaukee. Teague was playing his best basketball of the season in the five games prior to getting hurt so the fact that he likely won't miss time is great news for Atlanta.
This will be the first meeting between these two teams this year. Last season, when both teams finished at the top of their respective conferences, the two teams split with each winning on their own home court.
The game is scheduled to tip off at 8 P.M. Eastern time on NBA TV and to watch the live broadcast go here. For the Warriors radio broadcast go here and for the Hawks radio broadcast go here.
