Look, I'm not hip to write up a game that got out of hand and sent the country talking about the Hawks like they were cute, but Golden State Warriors are unbeatable.
I mean, sure, if you ignore that they lost to the Hawks February 6th, when that unstoppable force of a defense allowed 122 points to the Hawks. If you ignored that, sure, bow down.
The Warriors were great, as they always are at home. Not taking that way at all. What the Warriors did was be more aggressive and more active offensively and defensively, as the Hawks collapsed on their own poor shooting, buried in the low 30s% seemingly the whole game. Al Horford was left open so many times I thought he had morphed into Rajon Rondo. Yet Horford started 1-11 and never got on track and the rest of the Hawks, minus Kyle Korver, seemed stuck in one place all night, employing the overdribble as the offensive weapon of choice, with typical results.
Meanwhile Andre Iguodala and Leandro Barbosa joined a chorus of chirping Warriors in throttling the Hawks. Iguodala, who is a registered Hawk Hater in the realm of Vince Carter, scored 21 points in 26 minutes.
Steph Curry was 4-11 and it didn't matter. Everyone else was hot as the Warriors were comfortably in the 50% shooting range all night. Meanwhile, the Hawks looked like they'd eaten at Sonny's before the game, lethargic and poor in execution in every way.
Horford wasn't the only slumping Hawk. Dennis Schröder was also poor, 1-12 shooting and Jeff Teague was the sloppy version of himself, committing six turnovers.
While most were declaring the comparison between the Warriors and Hawks unworthy as the W's dispatched the Hawks, it was another brick in the regular season wall and the Hawks will wrap up this road trip in Oklahoma City before reuniting with a masked, and I am imagining angry, Kyle Korver in Atlanta.
Can't wait!