What we learned as Steph goes cold in Warriors’ rough loss to Suns originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
BOX SCORE
SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors’ search for three consecutive wins continues. After losing to the Phoenix Suns 130-105 on Friday night at Chase Center, the Warriors haven’t won a third straight game since Nov. 15.
That’s exactly 11 weeks ago when the Warriors improved to 10-2. They’re now 24-24, having gone 14-22 since.
Golden State trailed Phoenix by three points after the first quarter, 11 points at halftime and 19 points going into the fourth quarter. The Warriors’ lone win when trailing through three quarters this season was against the Suns on Dec. 28 when they erased a five-point deficit to grab a four-point win.
A comeback win never was in store this time.
Steph Curry couldn’t get going, scoring only 14 points in 31 minutes on 5-of-14 shooting and 1 of 6 from long distance. Andrew Wiggins and Moses Moody each scored a team-high 17 points.
Meanwhile, Suns stars Kevin Durant (19 points), Devin Booker (31 points) and Bradley Beal (21 points) combined to score 71 points on 27-of-48 shooting (56.3 percent) while making 13 of their 23 3-point attempts (56.5 percent).
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors once again taking a step back after gaining momentum.
Take Two
The first start of Quinten Post’s NBA career on Wednesday wasn’t one to remember. Post was fed to the wolves, and the Oklahoma City Thunder attacked. They put him in an alley-oop situation right away, and Post was called for a foul 15 seconds into the game.
Here are the stats from Post’s first career start: Eight minutes played, no points, no shot attempts, no rebounds and no assists — but two turnovers and three fouls. Numbers to forget, but not numbers to make coach Steve Kerr lose confidence.
Despite the tough showing, Kerr stuck with Post as his starting center for the way he complements Gary Payton II in the frontcourt as a stretch 5. Immediately, the results were much better.
Post drained a 3-pointer from the top of the arc on his first shot attempt. By the end of the first quarter, Post had three points, two rebounds and two assists. In the first 30 seconds of the second quarter, Post made his second three of the night.
The rookie center finished with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds in 19 minutes. He was a minus-18.
Lack Of Early Steph Shots
Though the Warriors only trailed by three points at the of the first quarter, there was a clear discrepancy in styles. Especially when it came to the teams’ offensive stars.
Booker took seven shots in the first quarter. Durant took six. Curry only had one shot attempt. His second didn’t come until the 7:38 mark of the second quarter. By then, Booker was up to 10 shots and Durant still was at six while watching from the bench, but Beal had taken four shots.
Curry’s second shot attempt, which brought his first two points of the game, wasn’t from him running off screens. The ball simply was in Curry’s hands at the top of the arc before he beat his man for a contested layup that trickled through. Going into halftime, Curry only had scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting.
A total of 11 Warriors played in the first half, and six had as many shot attempts as Curry or more.
Curry then took the Warriors’ first three shots to open the third quarter, connecting the first two times. But his first made three wasn’t until the first minute of the fourth quarter.
Painting A Brick House
Suns center Nick Richards opened the second half throwing down back-to-back dunks, the first being on Post’s head. Those two dunks summarized how the Warriors consistently were crushed down low.
Their lack of size, athleticism and ability to finish was glaring. The Warriors couldn’t make a layup, all while the Suns feasted around the rim. The numbers don’t do them any favors.
Per PBPStats, the Warriors went 10 of 24 on shots within four feet of the basket (41.7 percent). The Suns missed just twice from that distance, going 16 of 18 (88.9 percent). On shots that ranged from four feet to 14 feet, the Warriors were 8 of 23 (34.8 percent), and the Suns were 14 of 28 (50 percent).
The Warriors made three fewer 3-pointers than Phoenix, and their inability to find variety on offense was ugly.
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