The night after pummeling the Clippers, the Golden State Warriors traveled to the Valley of the Sun to face the Phoenix Suns, who recently traded Goran Dragic to the Heat and got Brandon Knight from the Bucks in a multi-team swap.
Alex Len was listed as “probable” for the Suns. The Warriors had all of their players available.
1ST QUARTER: Early Fast Pace And Klay Hitting
The Warriors got off to a fast-paced start, with Klay Thompson finding his stroke early and Draymond Green pushing the ball after obtaining possession on defense.
Green, who had multiple attacks of the rim against the Clippers yesterday, drove to the hoop early and got an assist to a Thompson trey, then on defense, communicated with Klay on switching back on the big, which put Draymond back in position to corral a turnover by Eric Bledsoe caused by Andrew Bogut.
Green advanced the ball to Stephen Curry, who found a streaking Thompson for the dunk on the fastbreak. The Warriors added a Curry left-handed layup and a Klay trey after the Suns committed a shotclock violation, giving the Warriors an early 10-2 lead.
Golden State could’ve fanned the flames further, as Bledsoe waved off a timeout by Phoenix head coach Jeff Hornacek, then Thompson blocked a layup attempt by Brandon Knight, but Klay missed a heat-check three-pointer from the right corner and Knight came back and banged in a pull-up jumper.
Green would push the tempo once more a few possessions later, getting the rebound when Len missed a jumper. Draymond gave the ball up to Thompson among some traffic near the Warriors’ baseline and, as Bogut trailed and cut to the hoop, Klay found the big man wide open for an easy lay-in.
That made it 14-6 with 7:10 to go in the first frame. The Warriors already had 4 assists on 6 field goals made, 3 of them from Thompson, who had an early 8 points, while the Suns were guilty of 3 turnovers and had no assists. Andre Iguodala then made an early entrance for Harrison Barnes at the 6:02 mark.
Thompson showed a bit of hangtime on multiple occasions, missing a dribble stop-and-pop with a smidge of extra air time, but then getting an and-one later after Iguodala got a steal on a bad pass from Marcus Morris. Andre fed Klay on the break, who then faked a three-pointer from the right elbow upon seeing only Morris between him and the rim, and drove hard right-to-left into the paint, hanging just enough for the contact as the ball trickled in and the foul was whistled.
That kept the Warriors ahead, 20-14, with 3:20 to go. Festus Ezeli would check in for Bogut not long thereafter. Bogut went back to the locker room to check on his left hand, which got banged against Len earlier, but later came back to the bench with no reported injury.
Ezeli continued his good play off the bench, showing impressive mobility as he dunked a pick-and-roll with Curry and got fouled, then made the free throw. He also moved his feet well on defense as Morris tried to take advantage of the big man off the dribble, but missed the jumper.
Bledsoe got past Curry with 6.5 to play and made the layup, but Steph came back on the other end with drive right-to-left that ended with a beautiful right-handed off-board reverse layup that gave Golden State a 25-19 advantage heading into the second quarter.
2ND QUARTER: Lead Squandered By Bad Turnovers In Less Than Two Minutes
Marreese Speights joined the bench unit with 9:51 to play and got a rebound of a missed jumper from Markieff Morris, then outlet the ball to Shaun Livingston, who found Iguodala for the fastbreak dunk. Livingston pushed the tempo as well, getting a defensive rebound on a Brandan Wright miss, then finding Thompson open in the right corner for a trey.
Another miss by Wright had Iguodala leading the break and stopping and popping for a swish from seventeen feet out, and Hornacek called timeout as the Warriors took a 32-21 lead with 8:34 left in the half.
Speights then found Livingston on a nice cut, then Thompson went easily by a close out by Gerald Green, dribbled hard right baseline for the reverse layup as there was no rim-protector in for the Suns with the super-small lineup and Len on the bench.
But Knight kept the Suns close, getting a running banker, and and-one on a drive-and-bump against Livingston, and a trey on a catch-and-shoot against Livingston, who was expecting a drive from Knight’s triple-threat position. That trimmed the Golden State lead to 36-31, although Livingston answered with a two-handed reverse dunk after going backdoor on the next play.
The Warriors went back to their small lineup with Green at the “5” and Livingston still in the game for Bogut, but Thompson threw a ball directly to Knight, causing assistant coach Alvin Gentry to roll his eyes in frustration. Knight also got hurt on a drive into the lane when his feet got tangled with Draymond’s. Unfortunately for the Suns, the injury appeared semi-serious and Knight would not return.
However, the Golden State offense stalled, with too much dribbling and Barnes passing up a wide-open three-pointer to head into a crowded lane, although he did draw the foul.
Yet, despite a nice Livingston flip shot with the left hand via a lob pass by Curry, a move past Bledsoe to the cup for two by Steph, who had frozen Bledsoe momentarily by acting like he was going to pass, the Warriors squandered a 46-37 with 1:52 to go in the half.
Curry threw a bad lead lob in an attempt to feed Thompson behind the Suns’ transition defense. Marcus Morris easily stole the pass and instead of the Warriors going up by double-digits, Bledsoe got a three on the way back.
TJ Warren followed up a missed layup by Green that went too hard off the board, and got an and-one assisted by Bledsoe as Len got in the way of the Warriors defense. That gave the Suns a 7-0 run and the Golden State lead was suddenly cut to 46-44 with 1:04 left.
Curry messed up again as Len managed to knock his dribble away after being switched on a pick-and-roll with Green. PJ Tucker saved the ball from going into the sidelines and Bledsoe streaked down the court for a layup.
Curry missed a revenge three-point try, Bledsoe airballed a three, and Thompson faked his man at the buzzer, trying to draw contact. The shot missed badly, but there was no foul call from the referee, much to Klay’s chagrin.
It was a tie ball game at 46-46 at the half.
Thompson led all scorers with 16, while Curry added 11 to go along with 4 assists. Knight had 13 and Bledsoe 12, although Knight would not return due to his ankle injury.
Although the Warriors held Phoenix to under 40% shooting, they themselves also shot under 40%.
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