Golden State Warriors Winning Streak Reaches 16 Games At Las Vegas Summer League (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account
It wasn’t convincing or decisive, but the Golden State Warriors held on to win their 16th straight #NBASummerLeague game, 74-72, over the Phoenix Suns.
Justin Holiday scored on a put-back off a Nemanja Nedovic airball with four seconds to play, and the Suns final shot glanced off the backboard as the game ended, as the Warriors overcame poor shooting to improve to 2-0 this summer.
After the game, head coach Steve Kerr joked that he thought he drew up the perfect play.
“I thought it was going to be short and hit the rim,” Holiday said after the game, “I was going to try and tip-dunk it, but it ended up falling into my hands, just a simple layup.”
Holiday led all scorers with 29 points and 13 rebounds, knocking down jumpers so regularly that fans of all teams were on their feet as he received the basketball.
The former Washington University star stepped up in a game that saw Nedovic, James McAdoo, and Orlando Johnson combine to shoot just 8-29 from the floor for 25 points.
McAdoo had a standout game the day before and the trio had been the Warriors’ three leading scorers in the 70-58 win against the Charlotte Bobcats Friday night, but struggled from the field and in taking care of the basketball, combining for 13 turnovers against the Suns.
The Warriors had built a seven-point lead by halftime, but allowed a number of easy fast break points off of turnovers in the third quarter. The Suns took advantage by taking the quarter 27-17 and a 3-point lead of their own going to the fourth.
TJ Warren (22 points) and Archie Goodwin (17 poins) were the beneficiaries of Phoenix’s fast breaks coming off of 24 Warriors turnovers, and combined for more than half of the Suns’ points with 39 combined.
Phoenix led by as many as 8 in the second half before the Warriors began their climb back into the game with a lineup of Holiday, Nedovic, McAdoo, Ognjen Kuzmic and Aaron Craft.
“In the third quarter, Phoenix came out and just took it to us physically. They were much bigger on the interior than us, and we had to really fight,” Kerr said, “I thought after we took that major blow from them in the third that we did a good job fighting and coming back.”
After playing their way back to down two with less than a minute to play, Holiday drew a foul at the basket and hit both free throws to tie the game.
Craft nearly recorded a steal during the Suns next possession, but was called for a loose-ball foul that the Warrior bench and many fans didn’t agree with.
The Warriors got the stop and, and Holiday made sure they ended up on the winning side.
“Coach Kerr tells us to play hard and never give up. I feel like our team did that today,” Holiday said, “When we got down, we didn’t step back, we fought back and we won the game.”
The Warriors excelled at the free throw line, going 26-31 (84%), despite shooting just 35.9 percent from the field and 13.3 percent from three as a team.
Kuzmic continued his solid rebounding effort, and now has 18 rebounds in 48 minutes through two games.
During the game, Draymond Green and Joe Lacob had a long, animated discussion while sitting near each other in court-side seats. At one point, Lacob moved to a seat closer to Green in order to be more demonstrative.
After recently arriving from the Orlando Summer League, Seth Curry played just 18 minutes, scoring six points and recording a rebound.
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