Steph Curry. Trae Young. Popcorn emoji.
When the NBA-leading Warriors (8-1) host the Atlanta Hawks (4-6) Monday night at Chase Center, two of the game’s best shooters will go face-to-face. Curry should be fresh even on the second night of a back-to-back after he matched his season low with 27 minutes in Sunday’s win against the Houston Rockets.
Considering Draymond Green was also limited to a season-low 22 minutes against the Rockets and 37-year-old Andre Iguodala didn’t even play, it looks like Steve Kerr played his cards right when it comes to veteran load management.
“That was huge,” Kerr said of keeping his vets off the floor. “We know how talented Atlanta is. So we were hoping that we could come out with a victory that we wouldn’t have to play those guys over 30 minutes. That was the hope going in, but you never know.”
It's not like they're showing any signs of slowing down, though. Just check out Green's end-to-end effort during this sequence Sunday.
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Neither Curry nor Green had to step on the floor in the fourth quarter Sunday, a result of the team’s wicked 20-3 third-quarter run that put the game in control.
“I thought Houston played really hard and played well for a long time, but that last stretch at the end of the third broke the game open and allowed us to rest those guys the rest of the way,” Kerr said.
In the midst of their franchise-long eight-game homestand, the Warriors will play their first back-to-back of the season.
“I think it helps that both games are at home,” Kerr said. “Not traveling between the back-to-backs makes it a little easier on the player’s bodies. Hopefully we’ll be ready to roll [Monday], Atlanta is a really talented team. They were resting [Sunday night] so we gotta be ready to go.”
