SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Kerr warned 24 hours in advance that the Warriors wouldn’t perform up to their own expectations on Opening Night. He wasn’t wrong. A Chris Paul-led 40-point third quarter couldn’t mask the loose ends in the Warriors’ 108-104 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday at Chase Center.
The game came down to its final seconds. A pair of late 3-pointers from Suns guards Josh Okogie and Eric Gordon gave the Suns a five-point lead that Steph Curry cut down to two with a 3 with 30 seconds remaining. Devin Booker’s assist found Jusuf Nurkic for a layup to give Phoenix a four-point lead with 10 seconds remaining sealed the deal.
“I thought it was a little clunky offensively, for most of the game,” Kerr said. “But it felt like it was mainly the ball just wasn’t going in.”
Win or loss, some of Golden State’s issues rose to the surface in Game 1: Their lack of size up front was apparent as they lost the second-chance point battle 26-20. There’s rust to shake off as evidenced by the 35.6% shooting from the field and 23.3% on 3s. It took a half for Paul to adjust to the unique rhythm it takes to create for Curry off-ball, then organize the second unit’s offense on a dime.
“We didn’t have all but a few preseason games, and this is our first regular season game,” Paul said. “Just figuring it out. We’re figuring it out on the fly. I think with more games, we’ll get more and more comfortable.”
There are conflicting messages coming from the team. While the Warriors have projected a sense of urgency to get serious out the gate, they’re also tempering expectations that the team is familiar enough to start hot. Seven of their first eight games are on the road — and there has to be some urgency to avoid a winless road trip reminiscent of the 0-8 away record they had early last season.
The Warriors showed some signs that they won’t be as disconnected as last year, particularly at the end of the second quarter and the entire third quarter in which they outscored the Suns 40-19 to take a six-point lead into the final frame.
With Curry in foul trouble for a lot of the game, Paul’s playmaking with the second unit ignited a 14-4 second-quarter run to erase a 10-point deficit. Paul, alongside Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Gary Payton II and Dario Saric, kickstarted the Warriors’ energy.
Moody was active on both ends, collecting 11 points, a career-high three steals, one block and three rebounds in 18 minutes. Payton was the go-to defender on Booker and finished a team-high plus-15 with three steals. Kuminga ran his strong preseason into a productive second half defending Booker along with 12 points, challenging at the rim enough to get to the line for six free throws.
Paul said he “felt free” to pull up for 3s and that he was excited to see how his offensive game evolves this year. But the crowd most enjoyed Paul pulling out some of his signature moves that burned the Warriors for years as an opponent. In that third-quarter rally, Paul put back an and-1 layup and drew a foul off Booker in the bonus, inspiring the crowd to break into a “C-P-Three” chant.
Paul had 14 points and nine assists. Clunky as the offense was, Curry — who had a team-high 27 points — saw everything smooth out.
“Just continue to get more comfortable on who’s initiating,” Curry said. “Where shots are coming from, sets we can run depending on who has the ball. It’s very fluid right now, it’s such a smooth transition because we both know how to play and there’s a lot of trust that whoever has the ball’s going to make the right decisions.”
With Curry in foul trouble (he had five) and Draymond Green out all game nursing an ankle sprain, Kerr tried a handful of closing lineups in Tuesday’s game and said pre-game that closing lineups will be decided situationally. That came into play with Kuminga and Payton taking over Wiggins’ typical role in the closing lineup — he was bumped with just one rebound (an offensive board) and a minus-22.
“He isn’t at his best yet, but that first game I think exactly three weeks after practice started this is how it goes early in the season,” Kerr said. “Guys aren’t in rhythm. Wiggs will be fine, it wasn’t his night but he will get better as he goes.”
The Warriors head to Sacramento to play the Kings to start a three-game road trip that moves to Houston (another Paul former team) and the New Orleans Pelicans.
