ATLANTA -- After suffering two straight tough losses, the desperate Atlanta Hawks appeared to be on the verge of ending their mini-skid on Monday at Philips Arena.
Unfortunately for them, there are two halves to a basketball game.
The Golden State Warriors outscored the Hawks 58-45 in the second half en route to a 119-111 come-from-behind victory to conclude a draining, five-game road trip.
Stephen Curry went for 17 of his 24 points in the final two quarters. He also nailed six 3-pointers and distributed a game-high nine assists.
The Warriors were down 15 in the second quarter. They're still trying to find an identity in the absence of Kevin Durant.
Both teams were playing the second game of a back-to-back.
"Great way to end the trip," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "I mean, 3-2 [on the trip], all things considered, losing KD. It's a good trip. Tough games. Tough travel. Down 15 early, it was a great response."
The starters for Golden State accounted for only 20 of the team's 61 first-half points. Klay Thompson went scoreless in the half due to being plagued with three early fouls. Every Golden State starter had a negative plus-minus mark at intermission.
The bench, particularly in the second quarter, is what kept the Warriors from digging themselves a deeper hole.
Reserve Andre Iguodala supplied 24 points and was 8-for-11 at the line, while Ian Clark and David West added 10 points apiece. Those three combined for 18 points in the second quarter.
Atlanta went into the break with only a five-point lead.
"I thought our bench was tremendous, did a great job getting us back in the game in the second quarter," Kerr said.
The Golden State bench scored 55 points on 18 field goals, including seven 3-pointers, and 12 free throws.
"It was really good for us, and it shows our depth," Iguodala said. "Guys were ready to play."
At the start of the third quarter, complacency set in for the Hawks.
The defending Western Conference champs opened the third on a monstrous 16-4 run. The sold-out crowd erupted with applause. There seemed to be just as many Warriors fans in attendance as there were Hawks fans.
Things began unraveling for Atlanta three minutes into the quarter, when Dwight Howard threw an outlet pass in the direction of Thabo Sefolosha, and it sailed out of bounds. Howard and Dennis Schroder began bickering about whom the pass should have gone to.
While the Hawks were in dispute, the Warriors quickly inbounded the ball, and Curry found himself wide open for a trey. He swished it. Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer promptly called a timeout. Like that, Golden State was up by two points.
The 15-point lead Atlanta had possessed was gone. Curry connected on three 3-pointers in the third quarter, and Thompson put in nine of his 13 points in that period.
Schroder, who was the team's best offensive weapon, was subbed out of the game for failing to guard Curry. Schroder never returned. He ended the night with 23 points, including four 3-pointers, in 24 minutes of action.
Curry said he didn't notice until later in the game that Schroder was being penalized for his actions.
"Just a coach's decision," Budenholzer said, regarding the benching of his starting point guard. "We need to learn to play together and stay together for 48 minutes. That's something that's important to us."
The Warriors still hold a slim 2.5-game lead on the San Antonio Spurs for the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference. They'll go home for a Wednesday bout with the Boston Celtics before hitting the road again for a pair of games.
For now, the Warriors are going to enjoy making it past this test.
"It was a great road trip under the circumstances," Draymond Green said. "We started 1-2, K[D] goes down, you got the emotions, you got those adjustments, Matt [Barnes] comes in, so we try to work him in, and he's done an amazing job of just making everything seamless and fitting right in. Pat McCaw moving into the starting lineup, Matt [starting one game], the game with no sound, a game where we go down [15] in the first half. To finish this trip off 3-2 under the circumstances is great."
