This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Phoenix Suns (0-2).
The Suns took a 57-55 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter – Trading Misses And Makes
Klay Thompson immediately evened the score at 57-57 with a jumper, but Zaza Pachulia made the first early highlight for the star-studded Warriors, receiving a pass from Kevin Durant on the high post, then leaving a between-the-legs pass back to Durant as he cut around Pachulia, using him as a screen.
“KD” buried the midrange jumper and, after a Jared Dudley miss, Golden State pushed the ball and Stephen Curry got fouled shooting a triple.
Curry calmly drained all three from the charity stripe.
The Warriors’ defense ratcheted up a notch and forced Phoenix deep into the shotclock, but Devin Booker bailed them out with a left-wing three as the shotclock expired.
Then Curry was a little too aggressive trying to draw a charge on Dudley and, instead, picked up personal foul number four. With 7:50 to play, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr opted to leave Curry in the game.
Steph answered back with another trey, but on the other end, referee Ed Malloy, who had made a couple of questionable calls in the first half, once again dealt the Warriors a bad hand.
A lob went up to Tyson Chandler, but Draymond Green read the play perfectly and tipped the ball away, only to have Malloy whistle him for contact with the body. Replays showed that Green’s jump and deflection was clean.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was livid, and the call was exacerbated when Dudley swished a three on the ensuing inbound play. Kerr angrily called timeout with 7:13 remaining and the score still knotted up at 65-65.
This also gave Kerr the opportunity to bench Curry with foul trouble, by inserting Shaun Livingston.
Later, Green dished to Durant on the right wing, T.J. Warren crashed through Livingston’s high pick to close out on the play, and was whistled for the foul while toppling Livingston over as KD’s shot went through the hoop:
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But Livingston missed the “and-one” free throw and the Warriors held a 72-68 lead.
David West came in a promptly swished an iso jumper on the right wing, then Andre Iguodala forced a turnover, led the break, and left a perfect bounce pass through traffic to Draymond, who slammed the bucket home and swung around on the rim to avoid the retreating Suns.
Phoenix head coach Earl Watson called timeout with 2:58 to go as Golden State snuck out to a 76-70 lead.
Watson inserted ex-Warrior Leandro Barbosa and he promptly drained a 21-footer.
Both team traded baskets, Livingston made a turnaround baseline jumper over Marquese Chriss, then Chriss made a strong play past Livingston on a post-up, but go tagged with a technical foul for taunting as he said something to Livingston, which prompted Livingston to smile at the absurdity of a 19-year-old taunting a 15-year veteran twelve years his elder.
Towards the tail end of the period, Kerr replaced Green with Kevon Looney to give Draymond a little rest before the quarter, and within seconds, Looney got victimized fouling Warren.
Kerr used the opportunity to put Curry and Durant back in the game for the final 22 seconds, but Steph missed a three from 28 feet away and the Warriors went into the final frame with a slim 81-78 lead.
4th Quarter – Late Buckets By KD
The Warriors opened the fourth with Curry, Ian Clark, Durant, Iguodala, and Looney.
Looney became a factor quickly, although he struggled at first.
After a charge into Brandon Knight, resulting in a turnover, Looney found himself inside with a nice feed from Steph, but Suns center Alex Len met Looney at the rim and denied Kevon’s dunk attempt.
However not long after, Looney got a second chance on a nice bounce pass from the right side by Durant. This time, Looney made Len bite on an upfake and went with a reverse layup off the board, with the harm, for the potential three-point play. Kevon missed the and-one free throw, though.
Len then also blocked a layup attempt by Curry, but Knight gave it right bad with a bad pass that Durant stole, only to have Steph botch the finger roll at the other end with Suns in pursuit.
Luckily, Iguodala was there to clean up the mess just before Phoenix got there, putting the Warriors back up, 85-84.
With Pachulia back in for Iguodala, KD and Zaza connected on a nice give-and-go, resulting in two made free throws by Pachulia, Green continued his assist collecting by finding Thompson for a baseline jumpshot, but Booker answered the call again with a tough baseline bucket with Draymond draped all over him.
Later, after a TV timeout, the Warriors had the ball on a baseline inbound and Green barked out the play, directing locations for Durant, Klay, and Steph. The ball eventually went into KD after some action and he hit a left-side jumper to put Golden State ahead, 95-91.
Durant then stole a pass meant for Dudley, Dudley fouled him immediately, the referees went to the replay, and the staff in Secaucus, NJ, ruled a clear-path foul.
But on the next defensive sequence, Curry committed his fifth personal and after free throws from Durant and a floater by Warren, Kerr called timeout with 1:30 remaining and the Warriors holding a 99-94 lead.
Out of the timeout, Steph fed Iguodala on the near right wing and, initially bunched at the high post, Durant made a break for the rim, Iguodala lobbed a missile, and KD not only caught the ball perfectly, but made the bucket with all kinds of contact from Warren:
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With the bonus free throw, Durant gave Golden State a 102-94 lead with just 1:19 to play, but after an Eric Bledsoe layup, Klay missed a wide-open triple, Warren got another bucket, and Steph threw up a prayer that missed everything, falling away from the left side, hoping to draw contact.
Dudley got a layup to close the gap to 102-100, but with just 14 seconds to go.
The Suns had run out of time and were left to foul Curry, then after a miss, Durant, and both superstars helped the Warriors finish with a cushion of 106-100.
Outside of Steph (28 points on 9-for-17 field, 5-for-8 downtown) and KD (37 points, 10-for-16 shooting, 15-for-16 from the line, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, but also 4 turnovers),, the rest of the Warriors shot an atrocious 16-for-51 (31.4%).
The Warriors were outrebounded 50-43, committed 15 turnovers to the Suns 11 and were just 1-for-17 from three-point range outside of Curry and Durant. Thompson was a cold 5-for-15 overall and 0-for-6 from distance.
Warren led Phoenix with 26 points while Bledsoe chipped in 21 points, 6 assists. Chandler tallied 18 rebounds.
Golden State (2-1) now travels to the Pacific Northwest to face the Portland Trail Blazers (2-1), in two nights.
[NOTE: Follow @rcasasjr contributed to this report.](Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @withthepoons)
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