Trae Young and Stephen Curry will clash for just the sixth time in their NBA careers when the Atlanta Hawks take on the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco on Wednesday night. The Hawks aim for a second consecutive win in Northern California.
Young had a season-high 19 assists, and Dyson Daniels blocked a potential game-winning jumper by De’Aaron Fox in the final seconds, securing a 109-108 road victory over the Sacramento Kings on Monday night.
Close games are nothing new for Atlanta, with five of its past seven games decided by five points or fewer. This stretch includes a five-point home win over the New York Knicks and a one-point upset of the Boston Celtics.
Recent matchups between the Hawks and Warriors have been thrillers. Golden State won a 143-141 double-overtime game against the Hawks in January 2023, but Atlanta got even with a 141-134 overtime victory in February. The latter game featured a scoring duel between Curry, who had 10 three-pointers and 60 points, and Young, who scored seven threes and 35 points.
In all five career head-to-heads with Young, Curry has scored at least 30 points, with performances of 30, 37, 50, 31, and 60 points. Young, meanwhile, has put up respectable numbers, with 28, 25, and 35 points in the last three meetings.
Curry is coming off a 26-point performance in a 102-99 road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday. Surprisingly, he did not get to the foul line in that game. His teammates struggled from the free-throw line, making only 9 of 19 attempts, while the Warriors were outscored 16-9 at the line despite having a 19-18 advantage in attempts.
After the loss, which ended a three-game winning streak, Warriors coach Steve Kerr insisted his players wouldn’t be taking a day off before the Hawks’ visit. The Warriors have shot just 63.9 percent from the line over their past five games and committed 19 turnovers against the Clippers.
Now they’ll face Atlanta’s turnover-creating machine, Daniels, who had a league-leading 44 steals in his first 12 games before focusing on blocks, including the game-saving block on Fox. Daniels tallied four blocks against the Kings.
