Warriors plagued by turnovers, poor shooting in loss to Suns
In their first of two blockbuster matchups this week, the Phoenix Suns outlasted the Golden State Warriors with a 104-96 win on Tuesday night. In a seesawing contest for most of the game, the Warriors were left to rue missed shot opportunities and a plethora of unforced turnovers.
Turnovers and a poor shooting night might have cost the Golden State Warriors the game but some lessons can be learned from Tuesday night.
The biggest question going into the game from a Warriors’ standpoint; how were they going to deal with DeAndre Ayton on the interior? From the early stages, it seemed like the question was going to materialize into a real issue, the Warriors propensity to switch on defense leading to easy paint points as Ayton had 10 in the opening 12 minutes.
On the other end, however, Jordan Poole was lighting it up in his best quarter of basketball at NBA level. His 16 first quarter points were a career-high for him in any quarter, leading the Warriors to a 35-31 lead after the opening stanza.
Turnovers began to pile up for both teams in the second quarter, particularly for the Warriors whose offense looked like a shell of the opening quarter’s. The Suns finished the half on a 17-6 run, taking a two-point lead at 56-54.
After Devin Booker was ruled out of the remainder of the game with a hamstring injury, many could have expected the Warriors to go on with the business in the second half. That failed to materialize though, Curry continuing to struggle under heavy duress from Mikal Bridges and the rest of Phoenix’s defense.
The margin remained two going into the fourth, the Warrior offense held together by Poole and Otto Porter Jr. who had an efficient 16 points off the bench. Curry and Andrew Wiggins’ struggles (the latter of which was a game-time decision with back spasms), along with the rising turnover count, meant that the Warriors just couldn’t break free of the Suns’ stranglehold. They scored just 61 points in the final 36 minutes, falling by eight in front of a raucous Suns crowd.
Ultimately, there are two ways you could view the outcome of this game; pessimistically, the Dubs lost to a Suns team missing arguably their best player for over half the game. Their biggest flaw, interior size, was also taken advantage of.
Optimistically, the Warriors were away from home without Thompson, Wiseman, Iguodala and Lee, were given subpar games from Green and Wiggins, produced a staggering 23 turnovers, and battled through Curry’s worst ever shooting game. Yet despite all of this, they were within one point with less than five minutes to go.