California Sports Journal

Despite the close finish, the Warriors were easily the better team in a match-up of two of the NBA’s worst teams. Golden State (16-38) went on a 14-0 run in the second quarter, holding the Hawks (10-43) scoreless for almost six minutes. Jason Richardson led the way with 5 points and Mike Dunleavy had 4 points during the stretch.

Richardson finished the game with 31 points on 9-19 shooting and with a season-high five three-pointers. Richardson, who won the 2002 and 2003 NBA slam-dunk contests, also soundly outplayed this year’s champion, Josh Smith. Richardson held Smith to 5 points in 27 minutes, and the Hawks’ high-flying rookie looked confused much of the time on the floor. Richardson showed off his own dunking ability in the first quarter when he threw down an eye-popping 360 degree windmill dunk that brought the crowd to its feet.

Tonight’s game was the first game back for Warriors’ forward Troy Murphy since he injured his thigh and thumb on January 28th against Seattle. Murphy hit the boards with a vengeance in his return. Typically a starter, he came off the bench Wednesday to pull down 20 rebounds in 27 minutes.

“Going into the game I was real charged up,” Murphy said. “I figured I was either going to get into a fight or get a lot of rebounds. I was happy to get a lot of rebounds.”

The Warriors have shown improvement recently, going 3-3 in their last 6 games, The three losses were by a total of 7 points. Tonight’s game was their sixth with over 100 points.

Golden State had a solid game on the defensive end, forcing the Hawks to turn the ball over 17 times. Richardson and Speedy Claxton had four steals apiece and Adonal Foyle blocked 8 shots in 27 minutes.

Antoine Walker had 27 points for the Hawks, including 5-7 from 3-point range. Walker hit two three pointers in the final minute of the game to bring the Hawks’ to within striking distance points before Fisher’s shot slammed the door shut.

Hawks’ rookie Josh Childress, with 17 points and 15 boards, had one of his best games as a pro in his first trip back to the Bay Area since starring at Stanford last year. For both Childress and his former college coach on the other sideline, the Warriors’ Mike Montgomery, the transition to the NBA hasn’t gone as smoothly as either one would like.

“It’s definitely been tough. Anytime you go from winning to losing, it’s going to be tough,” Childress said. “But you try and play through it, and that’s what I’m trying to do: just play as hard as I can, get better, and hope things turn around.”