(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Hawks take on Warriors for a blow out game

We knew the young Atlanta Hawks would not be contenders. We didn’t figure they’d be nearly incapable of winning a game.

We knew the Golden State Warriors would struggle this season. Too many missing bodies.

When they met on Monday night, one of them would emerge with the NBA’s worst record. And that would be the loser – in this case, the Warriors.

The Hawks played competent basketball and drubbed the Warriors 104-79, handing Golden State its third straight loss while snapping their own 10-game skid that dated to Nov. 12. The Hawks are now 5-16, the Warriors 4-18.

The Hawks began a teardown and rebuild last season. While they should not be good, they probably would not be quite so terrible had second-leading scorer John Collins not been suspended for 25 games for a drug-program violation.

The Warriors, who lost Kevin Durant to an injury in the playoffs in June and then to free agency, and then lost Klay Thompson and Steph Curry (among others) to injuries, simply don’t have anything like the talent that propelled them to the top of the NBA.

The Hawks are the NBA’s second-worst defensive team, but the Warriors couldn’t score. They were 3 of 17 shooting the 3-point shot that once was their most devastating weapon.

Such is life at the bottom. It’s humbling for the Warriors and a case of growing pains for the Hawks.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman