Trae Young and Stephen Curry go head-to-head for just the sixth time in their NBA careers as the Atlanta Hawks go for a second consecutive win in Northern California when they take on the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night in San Francisco.
Young had a season-high 19 assists and Dyson Daniels blocked a potential game-winning jumper by De’Aaron Fox in the final seconds as the Hawks edged the Sacramento Kings 109-108 on the road on Monday night.
The tight finish was nothing new to Atlanta, which has had five of its past seven games decided by five points or fewer. That stretch includes a five-point home win over the New York Knicks and a one-point shocker at the Boston Celtics.
Recent Hawks-Warriors history has included a couple of barn-burners as well. Golden State snatched a 143-141 double-overtime win over the Hawks in January of 2023 before Atlanta got even with a 141-134 overtime victory in February.
The latter was highlighted by a classic point guard scoring duel, with Curry exploding for 10 3-pointers and 60 points in defeat. Young countered with seven threes and 35 points.
All five career head-to-heads between Curry and Young have seen Curry go for at least 30 points. He’s had 30, 37, 50, 31 and 60 points during that amazing run.
Young has yet to outscore his counterpart, but he has put up a fight with 28, 25 and 35 points in the past three meetings.
Curry is coming off a 26-point performance in a 102-99 road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
One of the best free-throw shooters in NBA history, Curry failed to get to the foul line in the loss to the Clippers. His teammates didn’t make the most of their 19 attempts, missing 10 of them, in a game in which the Warriors were outscored 16-9 at the line despite having a 19-18 advantage in attempts.
After the loss, which snapped a three-game winning streak, Warriors coach Steve Kerr promised his players wouldn’t be taking a day off Tuesday leading into the Hawks’ visit.
“We’ve got to work on it obviously,” he said of the recent woes at the foul line. “Our guys have to get in the gym and find their rhythm, find their confidence from the line for sure.”
Golden State has shot just 63.9 percent from the line in its past five games.
The Warriors also hurt themselves against the Clippers with 19 turnovers. Now they go up against Atlanta’s turnover-creating machine — Daniels — who had a league-leading 44 steals in his first 12 games before turning his attention to blocks, including the game-saver on Fox, in Sacramento.
Daniels totaled four blocks against the Kings.
The first-year Hawk also found time for 14 points, which Atlanta coach Quin Snyder credited to Young’s unselfishness.
“Every game is going to be a little different,” Snyder said of Young’s high-assist, low-scoring performance. “Excellent job by Trae finding people and making plays even though it wasn’t him scoring. That’s what he needs to do.”
