The Phoenix Suns defense is losing its streak en route to Warriors

Stephen Curry (right), guardian of the Golden State Warriors, shoots against Frank Kaminsky (Phoenix Suns striker), Devin Booker (guard) and Cameron in the first half of an NBA basketball game in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 Payne (15). (AP Photo / Jeff Chiu)

The Phoenix Suns’ ability to execute fixtures that are unique to a matchup has earned them a handful of games this year, but their failure to do so against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday lost them the game.

The Suns dared the warriors to beat them without double MVP Stephen Curry failing, and the Warriors suffered a loss of 122-116 Suns.

Curry shot 7-of-22 off the field and 1-of-11 out of 3, with the Suns sending heavy double packs in his direction.

The problem was that Phoenix had recovered from them. Head coach Monty Williams didn’t like his team’s defense after the Warriors’ first and second action.

“That bothered us all night,” said Williams.

The box score showed this through with a spotlight that you can see from space. Golden State scored 62 points in the suit, 29 second chance points, and 12 offensive rebounds in the second game of a back-to-back game.

“We’ve never been a team that has been overhauled and I saw a bit of that tonight,” said Williams.

Aside from the execution, the Suns’ sense of desperation at being in the right place after working on curry wasn’t as persistent as it should have been.

Chris Paul, the Sun’s point guard, was asked what the key to this type of defense is and spoke about the challenges involved.

“You have to anticipate the next thing,” he said. “It’s tough on them. There is a lot of movement. Steph runs around a lot and it puts a lot of pressure on your defense. It takes a lot of talking and stuff, so it’s a good test for us. We have to do better. “

It’s a really energetic concept and the suns just didn’t have that juice for most of the night.

The team’s defense has generally declined. The suns are now 20th in the defensive standings since the All-Star break, while they are second in the offensive standings. Since the beginning of April, the defensive rating has fallen to 25th place.

The Suns led by up to 16 points in the first half, but the Warriors stayed close enough by just eight in the half, despite a terrible two-fourths shooting the ball.

When Curry found a rhythm in the third quarter, so did Devin Booker, who scored 22 of his 34 points in those 12 minutes. He had the Sun’s last 16 points of the quarter, holding Phoenix’s lead at six in fourth place.

But a night of poor defense combined with the suns trying to increase the pace more often seemed to affect their offensive rhythm.

“Just taking the ball off the net and playing against a set defense was one thing that certainly hurt us,” said Williams.

Phoenix only scored 18 points in the fourth quarter, and the Warriors played with six three-pointers from beyond the bow alone. None of them were from curry.

After the suns 110-107 and 3:04 were left, the warriors scored 11 points on five straight possessions.

They finished the game small and spent a good portion of the game with Draymond Green on Jan.

Deandre Ayton was involved in all five of these Warriors buckets in some way, be it on a ball screen, helping or changing to a guard.

The teams will get small in the postseason against the Suns and the question will be whether this will punish Ayton enough to counter as these teams will attack him defensively.

It was a resounding no for Tuesday only. Ayton had little to no influence on the game. On the offensive, the suns did not want to establish Ayton in the post, nor was he seen consistently fighting for the position.

Williams said he had to go back and watch the movie before he could judge Ayton’s game, while acknowledging that they had better get him the ball.

“It’s hard to get stuck in all these ball umbrellas,” Paul said of Ayton’s night. “We have to try to find him sooner. It’s difficult to play against teams who know what you’re going to do, but everything builds up. That’s all we do. “

Ayton had eight points, eight rebounds and two assists that night. It is the sixth game in his last nine games that he has scored single-digit points. The same goes for rebounds.

The loss came for the Suns despite shooting over 50% from the field and 16 of 37 (43.2%) from three point distance. They had both Paul and Booker doing their thing. Paul finished with 24 points and 10 assists, while Booker had those 34 points. Jae Crowder hit five of his six three-point points in the first quarter, ending with 20 points.

Andrew Wiggins led the Warriors with 38 points in 17-of-24 shooting.

The Suns have lost three of their last four games for the first time since late January, and the chances of a late attack on the number 1 in the West have become even smaller.

Given the great year Phoenix has had and the difficult season at this level, it wasn’t surprising to hear Booker’s response as he finished the team’s concern level in less than two weeks after losing the last two playoffs was asked.

“I’m not worried at all,” he said.

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