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When Dillon Brooks clubbed Steph Curry in the midsection with a reckless closeout late in Thursday night’s game in Phoenix, no Warriors player stepped to the physical Suns wing. No one helped Curry up off the hardwood.
In fairness to Curry’s teammates, they couldn’t have seen Brooks’ subtle, sharp shot to Curry’s gut live in the arena. But they didn’t have his back in the moment.
They rectified that on Saturday night.
During the Warriors’ 119-116 victory over Phoenix — which halted a three-game losing skid — Jimmy Butler bodied Brooks and threw a ball at his chest after scoring through him. Trayce Jackson-Davis set a lurching screen at him by halfcourt, earning an offensive foul with the warning shot.
More than any physical act, head coach Steve Kerr launched into a war of words at the postgame podium.
“How could you not be upset?” Kerr said of Brooks’ foul, which was deemed a Flagrant 1.
“This is a guy who broke Gary [Payton’s] elbow in the playoffs, clotheslining him with one of the dirtiest plays I’ve ever seen. So it’s not like there’s not a track record there. It’s right there, they look at it. I don’t know what the point of replay is if you’re not going to kick a guy out for literally punching somebody.
“It’s literally bizarre to me that he was not, first of all, ejected from that game, and then suspended or fined. Nothing. Nothing. So apparently, you’re now allowed — this is my take — to premeditate a punch of any shooter who’s left defenseless, you can now take a swing at him and know it’s just a Flagrant 1. I don’t know, so maybe we’ll do that. Probably not.”
Kerr said the Warriors had been in touch with the NBA league office about Brooks’ play, but declined comment on to what extent. Curry called it “bush league” on Thursday. Rookie Will Richard said it was a “dirty play.”
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Payton, the victim of Brooks’ 2022 undercut, was diplomatic at the podium.
“It’s just who he is,” Payton said.
Kerr was riled up already because Draymond Green got ejected with 10:39 left in the second quarter of Saturday’s contest. He’d gotten into it with guard Collin Gillespie after blocking his shot, jawing back and forth as they jogged across the court. Green shoved Gillespie in the back for his first technical foul, then picked up his second (and automatic ejection) moments later for arguing with an official.
Kerr called the second technical “weak.” It was Green’s first ejection of the season.
“He was yelling at the refs, so he definitely deserved one,” Kerr said. “But he’s walking to the bench and he yells something, second technical. I mean, we just saw a guy on their team literally punch Steph in the stomach. Premeditated, punch in the stomach. No ejection for that. Then two nights later, the refs got upset with some words from Draymond. I totally disagreed.”
At the time Green hit the showers, Golden State trailed by nine. The Warriors had allowed 44 first-quarter points and fell behind by as many as 14, pushing them toward the horizon of a fourth straight loss.
But Richard — coming off three straight DNPs — came off the bench to hit his first six shots and finish with 20 points. Gui Santos played six key fourth-quarter minutes. Butler twisted the dial on his scoring aggression and Brandin Podziemski strung together his second straight strong game.
Ironically, Golden State’s defense improved without Green. The Warriors allowed 23 points in the second quarter and just 20 in the third. They turned it over only seven times in the second half, allowing their defense to set up in the halfcourt. They showed some zone looks and were more aggressive trapping off ball screens.
The Warriors also crashed the glass, hauling in 17 offensive rebounds. Despite turning it over 21 times, those extra possessions gave them four more total field goal attempts than Phoenix.
Butler has a theory as to why the Warriors were suddenly so unified. It all comes back to Brooks.
“I just don’t think [we’d] all been on the same page, playing for one another,” Butler said. “And that’s not a bad thing. I respect that everybody wants to be great. But I think tonight, we realized what it’s going to take to win. And honestly, I think we were all on the same page at how bad we wanted to win this one after the ending of the game in Phoenix. I think we came to a certain conclusion: We all got to be in this thing together, [whether] we’re winning or losing, but we damn sure don’t let nobody mess with 30.”
Notable
• Buddy Hield’s streak of 199 games played came to an end with Saturday’s DNP. He played all 82 games last year and 84 the season prior.
Hield’s track record of 3-point marksmanship made him a candidate to earn minutes in a crowded guard internal competition, but he’s shooting just 32% from distance and has registered a career-high in turnover rate.
He’ll inevitably get another chance in Kerr’s interminable role player whack-a-mole.
• Jonathan Kuminga, who’d returned to the Warriors’ rotation with 10 spot minutes on Thursday, was inactive in the Suns rematch due to an illness. Al Horford and Seth Curry were also ruled out.
• Part of Phoenix’s strategy on Saturday was to attack Steph Curry on the defensive end. It’s not a novel tactic, but the Suns were particularly aggressive at it.
Curry admitted postgame that having to grind so hard defensively takes a toll on the offensive end (he shot 9-for-19 from the field). He loves competing and forced Devin Booker into some tough looks; Brooks’ size and physicality, however, were far too overpowering.
Brooks scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting while being directly defended by Curry, per Courtside matchup data. Booker went 3-for-5 for six points in the matchup.