PHOENIX — Draymond Green pulled up, exhausted, and watched as the nail dig into the coffin of the Warriors’ seven-game winning streak and their claim to sole possession of the NBA’s best record.
Jae Crowder’s 3-pointer with 3:47 to go sealed the Warriors’ fate in a 104-96 loss to the Phoenix Suns in a matchup of the NBA’s top two teams that lived up to its billing.
Green had just run the length of the court and back two times but failed to complete either of his attempts at the rim that could have stemmed the Suns’ game-clinching run. Instead, all he could do was watch. Crowder’s 3 was the clincher in a 24-18 fourth quarter that gave the Suns their 17th consecutive win and pulled them even with Golden State atop the Western Conference standings at 18-3.
Tuesday’s game was more than just an early-season matchup for supremacy in the West. It was a battle of one team vying to regain its position and another looking to replicate the former’s dynastic reign.
Suns coach Monty Williams laid the stakes bare.
“They have everything we want,” Williams said this week. “They have championships, they have MVPs, they have defensive player of the years — they have all that. We don’t.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr made sure to note this was the 21st game of the regular season, not a playoff series.
It took on a postseason atmosphere during a fast-paced first half with each team’s strengths on display, and it didn’t lose any luster after halftime, despite Phoenix star Devin Booker exiting midway through the second quarter with a hamstring injury.
The Warriors took a two-point deficit in to the locker room, and the two top dogs of the Western Conference played to a stalemate for almost the entirety of the ensuing 24 minutes, until the Suns ended the game on a 12-5 run set off by Crowder’s fourth triple of the game.
Trailing 99-92 out of a timeout with 2 minutes and change to go, Stephen Curry threw the ball right into the hands of Deandre Ayton, the final of 22 Golden State turnovers. Green and Juan Toscano-Anderson each gave up the rock five times, and Jordan Poole four.
Curry drew obsessive attention from the Suns defense and was held to 12 points on 4-of-21 shooting from the field. His only trip to the foul line came after a technical whistled against Phoenix.
The Warriors held a 48-39 lead midway through the second quarter but allowed Phoenix to pull ahead 56-54 by halftime and flip the deficit into a 70-61 advantage, almost entirely with Booker off the floor.
That took the Suns the final 7:25 of the first half and the first 6:41 of the second. And in less than 3 minutes, their lead had all but vanished, setting up a dramatic final quarter.
Poole flew out of nowhere and left Cam Johnson laying on the hardwood while the Warriors raced into transition. With the ball back in his hands, after a rejection at the rim, Poole fed a fastball to Gary Payton II, who put one exclamation point on the Warriors’ run, then another.
Poole followed up his block by swiping a pass intended for Mikal Bridges, then sent the rock Payton’s way again, and the 6-foot rim rattler threw it home again to tie it the game at 75.
Poole went off for 16 first-quarter points, tying a career high, but went quiet while the Suns regained the lead heading into halftime. He was held to two points in the second quarter and finished the game with 26.
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