Who: Phoenix Suns (1-3) @ Golden State Warriors (4-3)
When: 8:00 pm Arizona Time
Where: Chase Center — San Francisco, CA
Watch: Arizona’s Family 3TV, Arizona’s Family Sports
Listen: KMVP 98.7
The Phoenix Suns have the worst defense in the NBA, and tonight they get Steph Curry and Draymond Green on the road.
Nine days ago this matchup felt like relief. Booker dropped 43 on a Warriors team missing its stars, the bench flipped the game, and we all exhaled after Portland. Since then? Phoenix lost in Oklahoma
City, lost to Denver on Booker’s 30th birthday, and sat on a 1-3 record all weekend. Golden State went the other way and hasn’t lost since leaving Phoenix.
So here’s where the fanbase is at: nobody’s panicking about the offense anymore. We’re panicking about the other end. Every opponent has hung 120-plus on this team, and the Warriors just made 22 threes without Steph on the floor.
You do the math on what happens if Phoenix shows up with the same effort on the perimeter.
Tale of the Tape
Probable Starters
Injury Report
Suns
- Mark Williams — OUT (Shoulder)
- Drew Timmie — OUT (G-League/Two-way)
Warriors
Golden State rested Curry and Draymond on the front end of the back-to-back against the Clippers, saving both for Phoenix.
- Moses Moody — OUT (Knee)
- Kristaps Porzingis — OUT (Illness)
- Jimmy Butler — OUT (Knee)
What to Watch For
Phoenix won the home opener 131-122… still, their only its first win of the season. Devin Booker went for 43 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists with only two made threes, didn’t miss a shot in the third quarter, and broke the franchise home-opener scoring record held by Eddie Johnson and Charles Barkley.
The real story was the bench. Ryan Dunn, Jordan Goodwin, Collin Gillespie and Luke Kennard were a combined +56 in a 9-point win. Gillespie went scoreless in the first half, then rattled off 9 points in 3 minutes to swing the momentum. Kennard hit big shots in his Suns debut.
Now, the asterisk, and we have to be honest about it. That was Golden State’s C team on the second night of a back-to-back: no Curry, no Draymond, no Podziemski, no Horford. It was not an impressive win. And the Warriors will likely want to prove that tonight in front of their home crowd.
Even then, a depleted Warriors group put up 122. The first unit looked discombobulated with sloppy turnovers in the first half, and Booker himself said the second unit had better chemistry than the starters. Rebounding was the other red flag he flagged postgame. These are the two worst defensive rebounding teams in the NBA, with Phoenix at 30 and Golden State at 29 overall.
So now the question is: how does Phoenix stop Stephen Curry? A heavy dosage of Jordan Goodwin could be in order. Even then, good luck.
Key to a Suns Win
Stop the ball before it reaches the paint
Phoenix entered last week with a 124.5 defensive rating, dead last in the league, and opponents are now shooting nearly 44% from three against them. The sequence repeats every night: a guard gets beat off the dribble, nobody stops the ball, the forward helps late, and it’s a layup or a wide-open corner three. Against Denver, Jamal Murray and Christian Braun went 14-of-18 from deep, and Phoenix allowed 54% from three overall.
Braun was a 23% shooter coming in. Golden State’s role guys will get the same invitation if the help keeps collapsing.
Kill the self-inflicted wounds
Denver shot 30 free throws to Phoenix’s 11, and Murray alone took more than the entire Suns roster. Some calls were questionable. Plenty were dumb fouls, technicals, a delay of game, and the Brooks ejection. You can’t give Steph free points on top of open threes.
Start Gillespie, and maybe Oso too
Collin Gillespie had 16 points, 10 assists, and 4 steals against Denver and was +8 in a 7-point loss. Jalen Green had 2 points on 1-of-6 in 25 minutes. The Suns look their best with Gillespie on the floor, period. Against a small, switch-heavy Warriors team, this is also the perfect night to promote Oso. Gillespie said it himself: Oso plays like a point forward and makes the flow easy. Watch how early Jordan Ott staggers and who closes, because that tells you where his head is at.
Who will sacrifice? Who steps up?
Somebody has to sacrifice. Devin Booker scored 43 last time against a skeleton crew. He won’t get that runway with Draymond, Melton, Yaxel, and others loading up on him.
In that same vein, who steps up? Does Green bounce back off the bench or as a starter? Can Miles Bridges keep attacking downhill as he did in his 24-point, 10-rebound game against Denver instead of settling for threes? It takes a team to win. Hero ball needs to fade, and the hunt every possession should be to get the best possible shot. This is not on one guy. It’s on the entire team to buy in.
Prediction
While the Suns showed some progress in their loss to Denver, their defense is still a major concern. I do not see them winning this one, but I hope to be proven wrong.
