Suns Lose to the Warriors on the Road
- Matt Elvy
- May 12, 2021
- 3 min read
The Suns fall 116-122 against the Golden State Warriors.
Despite a combined 78 points from Book, CP3 and Crowder the Suns lose to the Golden State Warriors, for their 2nd loss in a row.
The Suns somehow forgot how to run an offense in the 4th quarter, looking disjointed throughout, managing to hit on 6 of 18 from the field for 18 points. The quarter could be summed up in a mis-communication play between Chris Paul and Mikal Bridges. As Mikal cut to the basket, he was open, so Paul launched the ball to him under the basket, however Bridges was crossing the lane to reach the opposite corner, presumably for a 3 and it turned in to a turnover for the Suns.
The Suns played well in the 1st half, gaining a 16 point lead in the 2nd quarter. Jae Crowder was on fire in the 1st quarter hitting all 4 of his 3-point attempts for 12 points. He finished the 1st half with 17 of his 20 points, shooting 5 of 6 from 3. The team (mainly Mikal Bridges) also did a good job against Steph Curry, holding him to 4 points (0 of 5 from 3), making his team mates step up and make plays. The problem was, they did step up, as Andrew Wiggins had 21 at the end of the 1st half and his level of play didn't fall in the 2nd half either.
Going in to half time the Suns' 16 point lead was down to 8, with them up 66-58.
Booker, who'd had a quiet 1st half with 9 points, decided to take over in the 3rd quarter, scoring 22 of the Suns 32 points in the period, but that wasn't enough as the Warriors would win the quarter by 2 points, then we've already discussed the 4th quarter.
Book would finish the game with a team-leading 34 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Chris Paul also added 24 points and 10 assists.
Game Flow from Viziball
"Where was Deandre Ayton?", I hear you ask. I have no idea. Against a team that genuinely has no decent big men, he should have played like he did last week against the Knicks, but no he only attempted 5 shots, making 4 of them, for 8 points. He grabbed 8 rebounds as well, but this isn't enough from him. We've seen this laid back attitude from him too often and he so damn important to this team's success. He was so unbelievably passive tonight and it's pretty disappointing. I would have said this whether we won or lost, as he's been like this for a few games now and it's been so puzzling to me.
I'm not sure if this loss along with Sunday's to the Lakers is by design, but I don't feel we've proven ourselves enough as a team, to be able to decide what games we do and don't turn up for. If we were still in March, I wouldn't be too worried about these losses, but with 3 games remaining, I am concerned about the switch on/off attitude, if it really is a thing.
Our record is, still a healthy, 48-21 and the loss makes it extremely unlikely we'll now grab the 1 seed from the Jazz. They would need to lose 2 of their 3 remaining games and we would have to win 2 of our last 3 to take the top spot, but as I said in my Weekly Roundup, I can see us resting some players in 1 of the games against San Antonio, so I don't see it happening.
I also just want to note that the Clippers have the easiest final 3 games out of the teams at the top and hold the tiebreaker over us, so we do need to watch our backs, if we want to hold on to the 2nd seed.
Next up is Portland at home Thursday night, which will be on Sky Sports at 3am.
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