The Golden State Warriors found another creative way to lose a winnable game.
Up 14 in the third quarter on the road, the Warriors collapsed into a feverish struggle before falling to the Phoenix Suns 99-98 after Jordan Goodwin hit the second of two free throws with 0.4 seconds remaining. It’s the third straight loss for Golden State, dropping them to 13-15 and two games under .500.
Jimmy Butler led all scorers with 31 points on 11-17 shooting in 34 minutes, but his excellence couldn’t overcome the
Warriors’ sloppiness. The team coughed up 20 turnovers (five more than Phoenix’s 15) that translated directly into easy Suns points when it mattered most. The Suns scored 30 points off those turnovers compared to just 18 for Golden State.
Stephen Curry added 15 points but struggled mightily from the field, shooting just 3-14. He dished out 7 assists in 33 minutes and scrapped out 9 rebounds. Draymond Green posted 7 points with 6 rebounds and 3 assists, while Quinten Post grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds to go with 9 points. Moses Moody pulled down 8 boards but went just 2-10 from the field in 30 minutes. Brandin Podziemski caught fire off of the bench in 28 minutes, scoring 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting, flowing well into his spots on the court.
Phoenix got 25 points from Devin Booker on 9-19 shooting and 24 from Dillon Brooks, who hit 10-23 from the field after a hot start. Collin Gillespie added 16 points and dished out a game-high 5 assists for the Suns. Oso Ighodoro dominated the glass with 13 rebounds, including 10 on the defensive end.
The Warriors actually won the rebounding battle 54-49 and shot 89 percent from the free-throw line on 16-18 shooting. None of it mattered in a maddening defeat. Phoenix shot 41 percent from the field compared to Golden State’s 39 percent, but the Suns absolutely destroyed the Warriors in transition. Phoenix scored 22 fast-break points to the Warriors’ 6, a 16-point differential that’s basically the entire game right there.
This team led for nearly two-thirds of the game and still found a way to lose. This team hasn’t figured out how to sustain winning basketball just yet. At least they got some good minutes from Podziemski and Post.
