The Atlanta Hawks have to capitalize vs the Stephen Curry-less GSW

If the Atlanta Hawks (36-37) can get a win over the Golden State Warriors, it would serve as a big confidence boost even if they don’t have Stephen Curry. With just nine games remaining, and the on-court performance as up-and-down as ever, the Hawks will get Danilo Gallinari back from a one-game absence.

They will still be without John Collins who is out indefinitely with a plantar fascia tear in his foot as well as a pretty serious finger injury. He received a PRP injection for the foot but only time will heal his digit which had severely hampered his performance.

Curry has missed the Warriors last three games, also with a foot injury that they are calling a strain.

Stephen Curry’s absence creates increased hopes that the Atlanta Hawks can get a big win

The Warriors have won just three games without Curry this season, though, their last once came in their most recent outing. Their win over the Miami Heat was surprising because they were without him as well as Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. It also sparked quite the blowup on the Miami bench.

Golden State came into that game riding a three-game losing streak, however, and had a five-game skid with Curry before going on a four-game run.

The point is they have been as beatable recently as they have been all season.

In their win over the Hawks earlier in the season, Curry went off for 50 points and 10 assists while knocking down 9-of-19 threes. He started hot too, notching 16 points in the first quarter and 18 points as a part of a 41-point Warriors third quarter.

Before beating the Heat, the Warriors had dropped games to the San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic. The Hawks also fell to the Spurs, splitting the season series, but blew the Magic out so there is some give and take even in the comparison. There just isn’t as much of a gap in the current versions of these two teams as there usually is.

In that, the Hawks have to try and take advantage of the Warriors inefficiency in the mid-range recently without Curry.

They have shot just 30.0 percent in the mid-range since Curry went down.

That is a full 9.0 percent drop in their efficiency. At the same time, the Hawks have seen their mid-range defense tumble in March, going from allowing 39.7 percent from that area to 47.5 percent dropping them from 11th to 29th in the NBA.

Atlanta has seen teams attack it in the paint lately – most often in transition – and have had success. Opponents are averaging 52.6 points in the paint against the Hawks since Mar 1 while they have dropped to 45.1 paint points per game. Those numbers were 47.2 percent and 46.0 percent, respectively, before this month.

Fortunately, the Warriors are not an attacking team, getting just 30.4 percent of their looks at the rim.

That is their lowest mark since 2005, per Cleaning The Glass.

They are the only team to rank in the 25th percentile or worse in frequency from every area inside the arc. However, they are also one of just five teams to rank in the top-10 in frequency on both corner and non-corner triples.

The Hawks – who happen to rank third in the league shooting 37.0 percent from deep – can make the Warriors propensity for the three work against them by forcing them into the corner where they shoot just 34.7 percent, per Cleaning The Glass, compared to 37.1 percent on other threes.

Both Green and Thompson will play on Friday. But, perhaps, Trae Young’s recent tear (29.1 points, 10.1 assists, 61.7 TS%) will be enough to lift the Hawks past the Warriors in a battle of the NBA’s 12th-best home team and its 11th-best road team by record.