NBA: Golden State Warriors at Atlanta Hawks

The Warriors versus Hawks match-up was the most anticipated game of the week, unfortunately, the Warriors weren’t able to get the victory. They played well enough win, but the Hawks were deadly from beyond the arc and they kept going to the charity stripe.

Now, the Warriors had to travel North to take on the New York Knicks in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. Steph Curry has some memorable history in that building, but the Knicks aren’t very good this year, so it might not take a lot to beat the today.

In case you missed the game, here’s our instant recap:

1st Quarter

The Knicks got off to fast start at the beginning of the game. After three minutes, the Knicks held a 10-5 lead and the MSG crowd was energized, which is something that hasn’t happened this season. It only took about two minutes for the Warriors to catch up to the Knicks, the game was tied at 10 with seven minutes left in the quarter. The Warriors got going and in a blink of an eye they were up by 10 and the Knicks couldn’t find the basket. The Knicks showed a little fight, but the Warriors would continue to respond aggressively, increasing their lead to 13 by the end of the quarter. The Warriors were shooting the rock well and the Knicks weren’t. It was still a game heading into the second, but the Warriors were looking to blow this game wide open.

2nd Quarter

Both teams got off to a somewhat slow start in the second quarter. The Warriors were able to slowly keep increasing their lead and after five minutes, the Warriors were up by 16. No offense to the Knicks, but the Warriors were clearly the superior team and even though the Splash Brothers weren’t playing their best basketball, they still had a comfortable advantage. You have to give credit to the Knicks, their young players keep fighting and they would make small runs to cut the lead to 12-14, but the Warriors always came back to extend it even further. Draymond Green came to play and he was hitting most of his shots. He had six straight points and the Warriors had a 24 point lead. The Knicks came back to cut the lead to 12 after Amare Stoudemire, Jose Calderon and Langston Galloway had a good stretch of basketball. The Warriors were able to close to quarter with a 16 point lead, they just had to hold on for the rest of the game.

3rd Quarter

The Warriors started the second half by getting the ball to everyone and they converted. After three minutes, four of the starters had a second half bucket and the lead ballooned to 22. Madison Square Garden was silent, this game had the feel like it was in the bag. It seemed that every time the Warriors would get the lead to the 20-24 range, the Knicks would try it make it interesting. Players like Lance Thomas and Jason Smith were still showing good effort. Klay Thompson had a nice stretch of seven points and the Warrior lead was safe. The Knicks and Warriors had evenly scored this quarter, so the Warriors had time on their side. The Knicks have some decent pieces, Phil Jackson just has to put everything together. The Dubs had a 91-74 lead going into the final quarter.

4th Quarter

Marreese Speights had been quiet today, so he responded with four points in the opening minutes. Langston Galloway scored six consecutive points and Tim Hardaway Jr also had a triple, cutting the Warrior lead to 12. This was a game. The Warriors went cold for about five minutes, which is why the Knicks were able to cut the lead to single digits. This was shocking, this game was all but over and the KNicks climbed back after the Warriors couldn’t buy a basket. The Warriors shot 1 for 10 from the field and only had four points. The Warriors were playing to lose and nobody was playing well. Curry finally settled everything down and the Warriors survived the scare. Warriors win 106-92