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Warriors' kryptonite, dire need for roster changes exposed by the athletic Hawks originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors, on Sunday, walked into Chase Center hoping to extend an encouraging segment of the season and encountered their kryptonite.

They ran into Atlanta, whose roster is built to expose and exploit their most obvious vulnerabilities, and were overrun in a 124-111 loss that served as a harsh reminder of the Warriors’ shortcomings – literally – while sounding yet another alarm for their front office.

The roster is profoundly defective. As good as the Warriors have been of late, rediscovering offense and winning eight of their previous 11 games, their margin for error remains thinner than dollar-store tissue.

The Warriors are short; the Hawks are lengthy. The Warriors are light on elite athleticism; the Hawks could assemble a very good 400-meter relay squad. The Hawks showcased active, disruptive defenders and had enough shooters to take full advantage of the havoc they created against Golden State.

Kryptonite.

“They got a lot of long, lanky dudes, especially with their guard play,” De’Anthony Melton said.

“We struggled to get paint touches tonight,” Stephen Curry said. “The ball was kind of just swinging around the perimeter, and they were able to keep five bodies on bodies. That’s usually what good defenses do. Tonight, we didn’t have that answer.”

After carefully disassembling the Warriors in the first half, taking a 59-53 lead, Atlanta came out in the third quarter and took away their composure, sending them reeling and relapsing into a bad old habit.

Turnovers. Specifically, the live-ball giveaways. Golden State committed five in the pivotal third quarter, giving the Hawks 13 points. The damage at the final buzzer: 16 turnovers, for 28 Atlanta points.

The Warriors, conversely, forced nine turnovers, leading to 11 points.

“They just played a great game,” coach Steve Kerr said of the Hawks. “We couldn’t turn them over. They shot it lights out, had 32 assists, only seven turnovers. I didn’t think we played poorly. I didn’t think we played that well. Obviously, 10-for-42 (from deep), we needed to shoot better. But more than anything, they just played a great game and deserved it.”

The result is another night in which Curry did plenty of scoring – 31 points on 11-of-21 shooting, only 3-of-11 from deep – and it wasn’t enough. Jimmy Butler III put in 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including 2-of-6 beyond the arc. Didn’t matter.

Not when the rest of the team managed only 50 points on 42-percent shooting from the field, including 20 percent from distance, while committing 11 of the 16 turnovers.

The Warriors led by as much as 10 in the first half, only to trail by as much as 25 in the second. They were outscored 20-7 over the final 6:07 of the third quarter.

Golden State’s offense seemed strangled in its efforts to penetrate a defense that featured 6-foot-9 Jalen Johnson, 6-foot-9 Onyeka Okongwu and 6-foot-11 Mouhammed Gueye up front, with 6-foot-7 defensive ace Dyson Daniels and 6-foot-5 Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the backcourt.

“Usually, there’s going to be one or two guys that you can kind of go at to create an advantage,” Curry said. “Doesn’t mean they’re just going to do that olé defense and just let you get to the paint. But you can create an advantage and then make them react, get the ball moving side to side. We did that well for short spurts out of the game. You just got to be able to have composure and attack if you have a little bit of an angle just to get downhill.”

Turns out Kerr was prophetic in the comments he made about the Hawks two hours before tipoff.

“We know how good they are defensively, with length everywhere,” Kerr said. “It’s really a game where we have to really keep it simple, make good decisions, and keep control of the game, make them score in the halfcourt.”

Mission not accomplished. And it won’t be the last time with Golden State’s current roster. Upgrades are needed to compete at the highest level of the Western Conference.

The Jonathan Kuminga trade market, which has been cool, opens on Thursday. The NBA trade deadline is on Feb. 5, 25 days away.

To recover from a decisive loss and on Tuesday resume sustaining their recent surge, the Warriors will need to play near-perfect basketball – and hope it is enough.

They won’t have to be so flawless if they’re able to somehow, over the next 25 days, bring in a couple productive players with the goods to counteract kryptonite.

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Observations after Sixers fall to Raptors in OT to begin mini-series  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers wound up with no reward for playing five extra minutes in the first leg of a Toronto back-to-back.

They couldn’t seal the deal in regulation and fell to a 116-115 overtime loss to the Raptors on Sunday night. The teams will meet again on Monday. 

Scottie Barnes made the game-winning free throw with 0.8 seconds left in OT. He posted 31 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. 

Tyrese Maxey had 38 points and five assists.

The 21-16 Sixers were without Joel Embiid (left knee injury management and left groin soreness). Paul George was a late scratch with left knee soreness. 

RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram and Jakob Poeltl were sidelined for the 24-16 Raptors.

Here are observations on the Sixers’ overtime loss Sunday:

Same first-half shooting story  

The Sixers added Kelly Oubre Jr. and Andre Drummond to their starting lineup in place of George and Embiid.

Dominick Barlow scored the team’s first six points on two layups and a pair of free throws. Outside of Barlow, the Sixers began 0 for 8 from the field. 

As was the case in their win Friday night over the Magic, the major first-half story for the Sixers was their dreadful jump shooting. The Raptors were in the same boat.

Jared McCain finally broke the three-point ice for both teams when he hit a nice side-step triple with 2.1 seconds left in the first quarter to give the Sixers a 25-22 edge. Overall, the Sixers and Raptors combined to shoot 3 for 26 beyond the arc in the first half. The Sixers and Magic had gone 3 for 33.

Raptors do damage in open floor

Toronto’s offense had much of its success early in the shot clock.

The Raptors created issues for the Sixers when they were backpedaling and failed to stop the ball. Led by Barnes, the Raptors constantly pushed the ball forward through both the pass and dribble. Toronto posted eight of the game’s first nine fast-break points.

Physicality and disputed whistles also emerged as early themes Sunday night.

Sixers head coach Nick Nurse picked up a technical foul less than two minutes into the contest and had many further conversations with the officials. The Sixers ended up shooting 25 for 31 at the foul line and the Raptors went 29 for 39. 

Toronto built a 14-point advantage late in the second quarter and held a 58-48 lead at halftime.

Sixers squander chances to seal it

Kelly Oubre Jr.’s third game since returning from a left knee sprain was by far his best.

Oubre provided a serious jolt right after halftime with especially aggressive, athletic basketball on both ends of the floor. He made a personal 7-0 run, converting two layups and a corner three. Oubre also snagged three steals in the third quarter.

While Maxey and Oubre featured in the Sixers’ strong third quarter, Jabari Walker and Adem Bona also chipped in useful frontcourt minutes off the bench. Both Bona and Walker played high-energy, physical games and competed well on the glass. They totaled 16 points, 11 rebounds (six offensive) and two blocks.

The Sixes eventually took a 73-71 lead on a Maxey mid-range jumper. They won the third quarter by 18 points and entered the fourth up by eight.

As Maxey watched the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Raptors surged ahead. No. 9 overall pick Collin Murray-Boyles (17 points, 15 rebounds) threw down a put-back dunk and Toronto took an 88-86 lead.

The Sixers played Maxey off the ball for a stretch late in the fourth quarter and VJ Edgecombe (17 points on 6-for-19 shooting) had a rough time offensively. After Edgecombe missed a step-back three, Barnes drove on Barlow and slammed in a big dunk. Two Barnes free throws evened the game at 99 apiece.

Maxey soon resumed on-ball duties and appeared to have the Sixers on the verge of a victory. He made a difficult turnaround jumper, a driving layup, and a three that gave the Sixers a 107-103 edge with 20.1 seconds left.

From there, the Sixers squandered multiple chances to secure a regulation win.

Immanuel Quickley hit a long two from the left corner and the Sixers turned the ball over on the subsequent inbounds play. Oubre couldn’t complete a clean pass to Edgecombe along the sideline.

Quickley then came up well short on a baseline jumper attempt over Edgecombe, but Toronto retained possession because the rebound last deflected off of Bona.

Barnes threw his baseline out-of-bounds pass to Murray-Boyles. He drove and dished to Jamal Shead (22 points, six assists), who made a short push shot with 2.0 seconds to go. Quentin Grimes missed a half-court heave, sending the game to OT.

Just like the rest of the game, overtime was a back-and-forth affair. Edgecombe sunk a massive shot when Shead denied Maxey the ball late in the shot clock, burying a tightly guarded three with 15.6 seconds on the clock to knot it up at 115-all.

Barnes ultimately had the last word. He drove on Oubre, drew a foul with 0.8 seconds remaining and knocked down his first free throw. Barnes intentionally missed his second, meaning the Sixers had no way to steal the game, and the Raptors celebrated a hard-earned win.

The Knicks are set to receive a big boost on Sunday night, as Josh Hart is officially available for the road meeting with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Hart will slide right back into the starting lineup and won't face a minutes restriction. 

His return is certainly a welcomed sight for New York, as the forward has missed the last eight games with an ankle injury suffered in the win over the Cavaliers on Christmas Day.

SNY's Ian Begley said on this week's edition of the Putback that Hart had been "getting close," and he was upgraded to questionable for the first time on Saturday night. 

Now, the training staff has deemed he's made enough progress for a full return. 

The Knicks remain in second place in the Eastern Conference, but they struggled mightily with Hart sidelined, going 3-5 and dropping five of their last six games.

The 30-year-old had been playing some of his best basketball of the season before going down with the injury, putting together 14.5 points and 9.1 rebounds over his last 15 games. 

What we learned as Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler combine for 61 in Warriors' loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO – Two teams came to Chase Center on Sunday with two-game win streaks. 

The Atlanta Hawks are the ones leaving town with a three-game win streak after the Warriors fell to them 124-111. 

The Warriors had a chance to earn their third three-game win streak of the 2025-26 NBA season and second at home. A win also would have put the Warriors four games above .500 for the first time this season, and beating the Portland Trail Blazers next game would have given the Warriors their first four-game win streak of the season. Those chances were wiped away in a 13-point loss.

Steph Curry scored a game-high 31 points but was 3 of 11 on 3-pointers. The Warriors now are 6-7 when he scores 30-plus points this season. Jimmy Butler scored 30 points for the fourth time this season, and also had seven rebounds, six assists and two steals. 

Missing shots and taking a step back in the turnover category turned the game into a track meet. That isn’t the kind of game the small, old and slow Warriors are built for playing the long, young and fast Hawks. The Warriors were outscored in fastbreak points 23-17, points off turnovers 28-11 and saw the Hawks have a 15-point advantage from deep.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors falling to 21-19 on the season. 

Playing Through Jimmy 

If it weren’t for Moses Moody shooting free throws, the same group that went on a 13-0 run at the end of the third quarter Friday night would have played the final three minutes and 47 seconds of the first quarter on Sunday. That group consists of Butler, Brandin Podziemski, De’Anthony Melton and Al Horford. Those five bring a combination of two-way impact, high IQ and shooting around Butler. 

All the ways that Butler stuffs the stat sheet showed up in the first quarter with five points, four assists and three rebounds. His four assists led to 10 points on passes to Horford twice, a cutting Quinten Post and a Curry 3-pointer. In the second quarter, Butler became the Warriors’ go-to scorer. 

Butler scored 10 straight points in the second quarter as he dominated around the rim and got to the free-throw line. The scoring barrage brought him to 17 points at halftime. 

Though Butler scored another 13 points in the second half, seven fewer than Curry but seven more than anybody else, his effort still came up short in a tough loss.

Disastrous Third Quarter 

A Dyson Daniels layup put the Warriors in a 12-point hole at the 8:47 mark of the third quarter, to which they responded admirably and went on an 11-0 run to get within one point of the Hawks. However, the Warriors were then outscored 24-9 the rest of the quarter. Just like that, the Warriors went from trailing by six points at halftime to facing a 16-point deficit. 

Curry had one of his third-quarter flurries of 12 points in eight and a half minutes, but the rest of the Warriors scored just 13 points. As a whole, the Warriors went 9 of 21 from the field (42.9 percent) and 3 of 13 on 3-pointers (23.1 percent) in the quarter. The Hawks were much more efficient, going 14 of 25 from the field (56 percent) and made 4 of their 10 threes. 

It’s not like the Hawks lit up from long distance in the third quarter – Luke Kennard did. The sharpshooter who is in the game for one reason was a perfect 4 of 4 while the rest of his teammates missed all six of their tries. 

But the Hawks also swiped three streaks and scored 13 points off four Warriors turnovers. 

New-Look Hawks 

Watching Trae Young drop dimes and let it fly from deep in a Hawks jersey is long gone. The Hawks chose a timeline and direction without him and are sticking to it. They’re now a Jalen Johnson-led team, which started well before trading Young to the Washington Wizards. 

The Hawks selected Johnson No. 20 overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, the same year the Warriors took Jonathan Kuminga at No. 7 and Moses Moody at No. 14. Johnson gradually was given more opportunities and made the Year 3 leap, a season in which he actually played 60 fewer minutes than Kuminga, clearing the runway for him to take off last season before being injured. 

Now, the Hawks have a 24-year-old Johnson who is playing like an NBA All-Star and franchise player. Why they’ve handed him the keys was clear against the Warriors. Johnson in one game against the Warriors last season scored 15 points with 14 rebounds, four assists and two steals. This time around, he was even better and finished at 23 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. 

Acquiring Nickeil Alexander-Walker, 27, from the Minnesota Timberwolves over the summer also was one of the more underrated offseason moves around the league. Alexander-Walker has gone from averaging 9.4 points per game last season to 20.5 entering Sunday, which is the biggest improvement in the NBA. He scored 17 points in the first half against the Warriors, and ended leading the Hawks with 24. They are the top of the pyramid for a new wave in Atlanta.

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