What we learned as Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler combine for 61 in Warriors’ loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO â Two teams came to Chase Center on Sunday with two-game win streaks.
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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 isnât 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.
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Playing Through Jimmy
If it werenât 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, DeâAnthony 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 Warriorsâ 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.
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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.
Itâs not like the Hawks lit up from long distance in the third quarter â 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.
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But the Hawks also swiped three streaks and scored 13 points off four Warriors turnovers.
New-Look HawksÂ
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. Theyâre 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.
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Now, the Hawks have a 24-year-old Johnson who is playing like an NBA All-Star and franchise player. Why theyâve 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.
