Despite large swaths of San Francisco struggling with blackouts as heavy rainstorms moved through the Bay Area, the Warriors’ 119-116 over the Suns on Saturday night was not lacking for juice.
Less than 48 hours after the Suns beat Golden State in a chippy one-point game, the teams squared off again, this time in the Bay Area.
Like many of Golden State’s games this season, it was competitive late into the fourth quarter.
With a minute showing on the clock, Curry brought the ball up with the Warriors leading by just two. Curry hit Gary Payton II, who found Jimmy Butler on the baseline for a contested layup that he turned into an and-1 score and a 115-112 lead.
Devin Booker responded by driving for an and-1 layup of his own five seconds later. Collin Gillespie had a chance to take the lead on an open corner three, but he missed, Brandin Podziemski grabbed a contested rebound, and Steph Curry made two free throws to push the lead back to four.
But Gillespie made it a 117-116 game when his one-legged 3-pointer in the corner went cleanly through the rim. The Suns elected not to foul, and let Steph Curry make a baseline layup with 5.7 seconds remaining. The Suns missed a desperation attempt from midcourt to end the wild game.
Curry scored a team-high 27 and Butler put up 25 points for Golden State, and Will Richard put in 20. Booker led Phoenix with 38 points, and Dillon Brooks scored 22.
It was abundantly clear early on that neither side had much love for the other.
There were three technical fouls handed out and one ejection.
Draymond Green was ejected in the second quarter after shoving Suns guard Collin Gilsepie from behind and arguing with the officials afterwards.
Devin Booker also got whacked with a tech for complaining to Pat Fraher’s crew over what he believed to be an uncalled foul on Steph Curry.
Longtime Warriors nemesis Dillon Brooks and Golden State’s Jimmy Butler had a brief incident when Butler flung the ball at Brooks after a Warriors bucket, but no technical was called.
The Suns jumped out to a 44-32 lead after one quarter, but the Warriors cut the deficit to 67-34 thanks to Richard and Butler’s aggression. The Warriors led 93-87 after three quarters.
The Warriors (14-15) will remain in the Bay Area and will welcome the Magic to Chase Center on Monday.
Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers
Steve Kerr has tried quite possibly every lineup combination possible, tried a multitude of tactics this season, all in aims of finding a way of mitigating the Warriors’ turnover-happy ways.
None of them are working, and nothing he did worked either on Saturday night. After giving up 30 points on 20 turnovers on Thursday, Golden State did not benefit from being back home.
The Warriors turned the ball over 13 times in the first half alone, and 20 times overall. Those giveaways led to 15 points for Phoenix.
Will Richard makes most of opportunity
One adjustment Steve Kerr made in rainy San Francisco was giving an unheralded rookie another chance. After starting a dozen games in November and early December, second-round rookie Will Richard was a healthy scratch for each of the past three losses.
But with the team in need of a spark, Kerr went back to the kid from Georgia.
He made the most of his first action in almost two weeks when he checked in during the first half in lieu of Buddy Hield. The rookie out of Florida scored 20 points, shooting 6 of 7 in the process.
Jonathan Kuminga out with illness
One game after rejoining the Warriors’ rotation, Jonathan Kuminga remained at home with an unspecified illness. Steph Curry also previously missed time with an illness.
Kuminga rejoined the rotation after three consecutive healthy scratches, and produced two points and four rebounds in 10 minutes of action.
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