Golden State Warriors Fall To Phoenix Suns In Hard Fought Season Opener
The Phoenix Suns held on to beat the Golden State Warriors 108-104 in last night’s hard fought season opener. Both teams were undermanned as Sun’s new acquisition Bradley Beal was out with a back injury and Warrior’s signal caller Draymond Green was sidelined with a sprained ankle. There were plenty of storylines surrounding the game including Kevin Durant’s return to the Bay and Frank Vogel’s first game at the helm for Phoenix, but none greater than Chris Paul’s Warrior debut. Many were curious as to how he would fit in, what role he would play, and how many minutes he would get. While it is just the first game of the season, it was interesting to see everything unfold. Paul started for the Dubs along with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney. While the Suns rolled out Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Jusuf Nurkic, Josh Okogie, and Grayson Allen.
Nurkic kicked off the scoring with a nice and-one layup before Curry hit a step back three in his face to even the score at 3 apiece. The Suns then went on a 10-2 run led by eight points from Devin Booker. Booker stayed hot, hitting an elbow jumper to make it 24-12 with just under six minutes to go in the first quarter. The Warriors played scrappy defense and bounced back to tie the game at 28 at the end of the first. The first half of the second quarter was neck and neck before Phoenix poured in 20 points in the last five minutes highlighted by two and-ones from Okogie and a massive and-one three pointer from Durant. At the break the Dubs trailed 61-46.
In a crucial first couple minutes of the third, the Warriors went on a 17-3 run to cut the deficit to one. Nurkic ended the drought for Phoenix with a top of the key jumper but the momentum had already swung in the Warrior’s favor and after a sweet Curry assist to Kuminga, they had an 86-80 lead going into the fourth. Durant came out hot and hit a tough floater over Kuminga before going coast to coast for a nice finger-roll layup cutting the lead to two. Newly acquired Yuta Watanabe got a bucket in transition before Eric Gordon and Klay Thompson traded threes to knot it up at 91-91. This is where Head Coach Steve Kerr had to make some hard decisions. Should he go big or small, should he go young or old. He decided to play small and young, ending the game with Kuminga instead of Wiggins, and keeping Paul and Curry on the court at the same time. Booker hit a clutch three with just over four minutes left, giving the Suns a four point lead but three minutes later the Warriors were within one thanks to a CP3 mid range jumper and a made free throw. With around 90 seconds left in the game, the Dubs needed a stop but came up empty after a corner trey from Josh Okogie. Curry knocked down two free throws after getting fouled but Eric Gordon nailed a dagger three from the wing to give the Suns a comfortable five point lead with 45 seconds to go. In a last chance effort, Curry grabbed a loose ball off a Chris Paul miss and hit a step back three to cut the lead to two. But Booker came down and calmly dished Nurkic a pass leading to a reverse layup and the end of the game.
Booker finished with 32 points, 8 assists and 6 boards while Durant, Okogie, and Nurkic poured in 18, 17 and 14. On the Warriors side, Curry led the team with 27 points on a disappointing 4-14 clip from three point range. Thompson struggled to find his rhythm, ending with 15 points on 6-18 shooting. And CP3 went 4-13 from the field including 0-6 from deep in his Warriors debut, finishing with 14 points and 9 assists.
Despite the unfortunate home loss, there were several bright spots for the Warriors. Rookie Moses Moody looked great on both ends of the floor. He played hard defense causing multiple turnovers as well as playing more aggressive on offense and cashing in on the open shots he had. Kuminga also looked good as he finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds off the bench. If these two third-year players can provide the Warriors with big minutes off the bench, it will be imperative to the team’s success. Finally, even though Gary Payton went 0-5 from the field, he played his typical hard-nosed defense and ended the game with a plus-minus of +15. The Warriors don’t need him to score if he can play lockdown defense and hit the occasional corner three which he has proven capable of doing. Conversely, there were a few areas where the Dubs struggled, primarily rebounding. The Suns had 17 offensive rebounds and 60 boards total. This is likely to be a problem all year long as Golden State simply doesn’t have enough size. With Looney and Saric being their biggest players standing at 6”9 and 6”10, opposing teams' big men are able to rack up rebounds all game long. The return of Draymond Green will help but even he will have trouble boxing out 7 footers such as Rudy Gobert, Anthony Davis, or Victor Wembanyama. One other struggle for the Warriors was the three point shot. They shot an abysmal 23% from deep on a 10-43 clip. Hopefully they find their rhythm soon as they will find it hard to win games if they continue shooting at that level.
The Warriors next tilt comes on Friday against the Sacramento Kings. I predict the Warriors will bounce back in a high scoring affair, and take this one on the road 124-115.