Warriors news: Wiggins goes off on Hawks, Kerr confirms Melton replacement, Green career-best streak ends

While the Golden State Warriors received the worst possible news on De'Anthony Melton on Wednesday — receiving word that he'll undergo season-ending surgery on his sprained left ACL — they still had business to take care of against the Atlanta Hawks.

And take care of business they did, taking an easy 120-97 victory, marking the third time they've held an opponent to under 100 points this season.

As per usual, this was a solid all-around effort from Steve Kerr's squad, as six Golden State players scored in double-digits, a group led by Andrew Wiggins, who posted 27 points. More on him in a moment.

Steph Curry won the highly anticipated battle against Trae Young, making 7 of 10 shots en route to 23 points and adding eight assists, four rebounds, a pair of steals and a block. Young, meanwhile, managed just a dozen points on 4-for-12 shooting but did add a game-high 11 dimes.

With the win, the Warriors improved to 11-3, thus maintaining their position atop the Western Conference standings heading into their NBA Cup group play matchup with the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night.

Here's a look at some news and notes surrounding the Dubs following their big win over Atlanta.

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Andrew Wiggins was hot against the Hawks

As mentioned, Andrew Wiggins led Golden State in scoring on Wednesday night, posting 27 points, just two shy of the season-high 29 he put up against the Los Angeles Clippers in the third game of the season, which is also one of the Warriors' only losses.

But while Wiggins didn't set a season-best in points, he did post a campaign-high in field goals made, hitting 12 of 17 shots from the floor in the 23-point win. This was the second time this season he's hit more than 70% of his shot attempts, the other being the aforementioned game versus the Clips.

From an overall standpoint, Wednesday was the better all-around game, though. Against LA, Wiggins didn't contribute much in other aspects, grabbing just three rebounds and dishing out zero assists. Against Atlanta, however, he posted seven boards, four assists, and a pair of blocks and didn't commit a single turnover.

Steve Kerr confirms Lindy Waters III as the Warriors starting shooting guard moving forward

While Kerr has already hit the double-digit mark in different starting lineups used this season, he seemed to finally be set with Curry at point, Melton at the two spot, Wiggins at small forward, Draymond Green at power forward, and Trayce Jackson-Davis, who posted his first double-double of the year on Wednesday, at center.

But once Melton went down, Kerr was forced to adjust.

With Buddy Hield doing what he's been doing off the bench, that didn't seem to be an option. Some thought Brandin Podziemski or Moses Moody might move into the starting five, but Kerr opted to go with Lindy Waters III in the first game following Melton's injury. And that's been the case the last two games and will continue to be the case moving forward, which Kerr confirmed on Wednesday.

“I’m committed to that right now," Kerr stated about starting Waters. "He’s a good fit next to that group. I like bringing Buddy [Hield] off the bench. The bench group has been really good this year. Starting with Lindy allows us to keep the bench intact and gives us another shooter and defender in the starting lineup.”

Waters was one of the six Warriors in double figures against the Hawks, scoring 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting in 23 minutes.

Draymond Green's career-high 3-point streak came to an end

While Draymond Green wasn't one of the Warriors in double figures, he had a solid overall game against Atlanta with nine points, a team-high nine assists, seven rebounds, two blocks, and a steal.

What he didn't have was multiple three-pointers.

In the five games prior to Wednesday night, Green had hit two or more shots from beyond the arc in each of them. The fifth, which came in Monday night's loss to the Clips, gave Green the longest streak of his career in this regard.

But that streak came to an end against the Hawks. Not only did Green not hit multiple three-pointers, he failed to connect on any of his four attempts. It doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things involving this surprising Warriors team, but it was an entertaining trend to track.