The Golden State Warriors showed some life in the second quarter, well at least Monta Ellis did.
Things went from bad to worse for the Warriors in the second quarter as the Hawks extended their lead to 20 with a 55-35 lead. Monta had a stretch of 10 unanswered points for the W’s in an attempt to bring them back into the game but the rest of the team simply couldn’t keep up with the Hawks. The poor shooting continued (14-42 33.3%) for the W’s who continually were shooting themselves in the foot in the first half; committing 13 turnovers for 24 Atlanta points, getting out rebounded 26-18, and having every single starter besides Dorell Wright with a negative double digit +/- rating.
Head Coach Keith Smart played a lot of bench players in the second quarter in an attempt to get something going offensively, which obviously wasn’t working too well. Although big man Louis Amundson saw his first minutes since January 30 having sat out with a back injury. He had 2 points and 4 rebounds in 9 minutes. Monta Ellis leads all scorers in the game with 14, David Lee had 10 points and 6 rebounds. The Hawks’ Al Horford and Josh Smith had big first halves with Smith scoring 13 with 6 rebounds and 4 assists and Horford adding 10 with 8 rebounds.
The W’s need to stop trying to force things offensively and try to run some plays, but the Hawks are filling the lanes and making it difficult for Golden State. Some serious adjustments need to be made by the coaching staff of the Warriors are going to start the road trip with a blowout loss.