The Golden State Warriors could be excused for coming out slow against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night. They suffered a disappointing and dramatic loss to the LA Clippers on Monday and received brutal news on Wednesday afternoon: starting shooting guard De’Anthony Melton will undergo season-ending surgery on his sprained ACL.

But they were not slow to come out. Instead, they came out swinging. In a fun first quarter, the teams went back and forth for a while until the Dubs turned on the burners. An outstanding defensive performance – led by the superstar defense of Draymond Green and Lindy Waters III putting the clamps on high school teammate Trae Young – forced Atlanta’s top-10 offense to go ice cold as the offense began to fly. An absurd 24-2 run gave the Dubs control, and they would never relinquish that control. That point was part of a 27-7 end to the quarter, giving Golden State a 41-22 lead at the end of the frame, and their highest point total in the first quarter.

For a while in the second quarter, it looked like the Dubs might be thinking about giving that lead back. They flirted with getting a little sloppy, and gave Atlanta’s offense a little life. The Hawks began to harass the Warriors with their abundance of wing length and athleticism, while getting passes, shots and offensive rebounding opportunities.

But the Warriors never let the lead slip much, and an excellent two-on-one sequence left its mark on the half: a Green missed three was collected by Andrew Wiggins, who put the ball right back in. Curry poked the ball away from Dyson Daniels and then found Wiggins alone in transition for an uncontested dunk. After Atlanta missed a three at the buzzer, the Warriors went to the locker room with a 67-42 lead, thanks to 13 points from Curry and 11 points from Wiggins and Buddy Hield.

The Warriors didn’t seem to care in the third quarter that they had a 25-point lead…at least not at first. Green found Trayce Jackson-Davis on a lob to start the action and then, after a stop at the other end, Curry found Jackson-Davis on another lob (which wasn’t converted, but TJD was fouled and made both shots) . After a Wiggins bucket, the Dubs had scored six straight to open the half and a 31-point lead.

And then the collapses they’ve had in recent games started to taunt the Warriors. The offense went ice cold, and Atlanta chopped away, and chopped away, and chopped away. Visions of another lead danced through your mind as the Hawks, after that first Golden State run, defeated the Warriors 33-17, making it a 15-point game entering the fourth quarter.

That 15-point game became a 13-point game on Atlanta’s first possession, and you took a deep breath. And then the Warriors returned.

They went on a 5-0 run and, thanks in large part to an explosive attack from Wiggins, went to work resetting the score. They certainly would have liked to keep the lead in the 1930s and leave their stars alone longer, but Atlanta never posed a real threat and never cut the deficit to single digits. With Wiggins dumping in buckets and Green turning on defense, the Warriors built another huge lead and cruised to a 120-97 victory.

It was a night defined by efficiency and defense, as the Warriors shot 47.0% from the field and held Atlanta’s high-powered offense to under 100 points. Wiggins had one of his best performances of the season, finishing with a team-high 27 points on 12-for-17 shooting, with seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks and no turnovers. Curry, on the other hand, had a five-point drop, but that’s excusable when you score 23 points on 7-for-10 shooting, including 4-for-6 from deep (plus 5-for-5 on free throws), and add four points adds up. rebounds, eight assists, two steals and a block.

Jackson-Davis finished with a double-double, with 14 points and 11 rebounds, but the star may have been Green. After taking responsibility for Monday’s loss, Green was on triple-double watch coming into this game, with nine points, seven rebounds, nine assists, one steal and two blocks. His defense was a big part of why he finished a game-high +29. Even with Green trailing by a point, the Dubs still had six players in double figures, with Hield trailing 11 and Waters and Jonathan Kuminga scoring 10 each.

The Warriors improved to 11-3 with the win, including 5-1 at home, and took sole possession of first place in the Western Conference. They will have a day to travel and then take on the New Orleans Pelicans in an NBA Cup game on Friday at 4:30 PM PT.