It’s just not the same rivalry between the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns this season. Kevin Durant has taken his talents and his social media accounts to Houston. Chris Paul has been gone since
2023 and played with the Warriors in the interim. Devin Booker is still there to terrorize the Warriors — he had 38 points Tuesday night — but without Klay Thompson around to get upset at him, some of the juice is gone.
Dillon Brooks tried to do his best while not playing, picking up a technical foul while on the bench in street clothes, but that was the biggest conflict in Golden State’s 118-107 win. The Warriors took a number of big leads during this game, but never quite put the Suns away.
The Dubs led by 25 points with four minutes to go in the second quarter, and by 23 with 6:25 to go in the third. That’s when Phoenix went on a 16-2 run to get themselves back in the game. The Suns never got the lead closer than seven points, and a Quinten Post three-pointer got the lead up to 19 points with seven minutes to play, but Phoenix cut the lead to eight points once more before the Dubs finally wrapped it up.
With Al Horford sitting out, Steve Kerr’s decision to start Quinten Post paid off early, with the second-center center sinking three triples in the game’s first five minutes. The Post Man always rings thrice!
Golden State made five of their first seven threes and shot 7-for-11 from deep in the first quarter, perhaps because like 7-11 itself, the Warriors were always open.
7-11 is what Moses Moody shot from the field in this game, but he turned that into 24 points by hitting five threes and going 5-for-6 from the foul line. Moody added five rebounds and a steal and finished +15 in 34 minutes, the most played by anyone on the Warriors not named Steph Curry.
Besides the hot outside shooting, the Warriors delivered some very nice passing. They had 33 assists on the game, Draymond Green dishing eight of them, and 10 of the Warriors who played had at least two dimes.
A lot of them went for dunks.
Jonathan Kuminga (9 points, 5 rebounds) didn’t dunk this pinpoint long pass from Draymond Green, but it was still quite an impressive no-dribble fast break.
With a big lead, the Warriors arguably eased up a bit, but they also didn’t have Jimmy Butler in the second half, who sat after halftime with back soreness. He finished with two points, two assists, and four rebounds, but he was +17 in his 14 minutes. His status for Wednesday’s game in Sacramento is questionable.
There’s also a difference between taking your foot off the gas and simply not being able to stop Booker, who went off in the third quarter.
The absence of Butler was felt on defense and also on the 20 free-throw attempts the Warriors got, five below their season average. Having Butler on the floor when you have a lead is like having a workhorse NFL running back who can soak up carries and kill the clock.
Curry scored 28 points and went 5-for-12 from three-point range while battling stomach flu. It looked like he could have an early night when he left the game with 5:46 remaining, but the Suns cutting the lead to eight meant Curry had to return to sink some free throws and watch as the Suns’ comeback turned into Mark Williams (16 points, 16 rebounds) repeatedly missing putbacks then committing an offensive foul.
Did the Warriors flirt with the idea of dropping a third straight game to an injured and inferior team? Yes they did, but the general effort level was higher and the team took the Suns more seriously than they did the Greek Freak-less Milwaukee Bucks and the walking wounded Indiana Pacers.
But as the song says, there ain’t no rest for the wicked awesome Warriors, who improved to 5-3. They’re going to need even more for Wednesday’s back-to-back against the Sacramento Kings, where they may not have Butler or Curry and the team no longer has Kevon Looney to give Domantas Sabonis traumatic flashbacks to 2023. At least he still has Draymond. And a good game from Jonathan Kuminga might inspire the Kings to make another trade offer for him! Which will also be terrible, and rejected.
In a world where some old Warriors rivalries are fizzling out, at least we still have Sabonis. And the Beam.
