Jalen Green missed all three regular-season meetings between the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors. He made up for it Friday.<\/p>\n
Green scored 36 points \u2014 including 13 in the third quarter \u2014 to lead the Suns past the Warriors, 111-96, in a Play-In Tournament elimination game in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
After blowing an 11-point fourth-quarter lead in Thursday\u2019s 7-8 matchup, the Suns didn\u2019t let this one slip. They held off the Warriors to secure the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference and a first-round matchup with the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n
The Suns led by five to begin the third quarter and stretched the margin to nine, 78-69, thanks in large part to Green, who went 5 for 7 from the field in the quarter, including 3 of 5 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
The Warriors, who rallied from 13 down to win Wednesday\u2019s 9-10 Play-In game, got 17 points from star Stephen Curry.<\/p>\n
Here are our takeaways from Phoenix:<\/p>\n
Phoenix needed this<\/p>\n
If you asked which organization needed this more, the answer was obvious. An aging Golden State would have little to gain from advancing, with a rested and powerful Oklahoma City team waiting. Better to head home and figure out how to reload for next season.<\/p>\n
Phoenix, on the other hand, is a different story. After the Kevin Durant-Bradley Beal disaster, the organization needed to win back the fan base\u2019s trust. The eighth seed is nothing to celebrate \u2014 and the Suns made the Play-In Tournament much more difficult than it needed to be \u2014 but reaching the playoffs was an important step. The Suns may not win a game against the Thunder. In fact, they probably will not. But as long as they don\u2019t get embarrassed, this can at least be a starting point. \u2014 Doug Haller, NBA writer<\/p>\n
No late-game heroics from Steph tonight<\/p>\n
Stephen Curry turned back time on Wednesday night against the LA Clippers and extended the Warriors\u2019 season for one more game in a vintage performance that made everybody remember just how good this team can still be on certain nights. Two nights later, in Friday night\u2019s 111-96 season-ending loss to the Suns, Curry and the Warriors looked like exactly the kind of injury-riddled team they\u2019ve been most of the season.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old poured everything he had into Wednesday\u2019s 35-point effort. There wasn\u2019t much gas left in the tank. Curry finished 4 for 16 from the field and 3 for 10 from deep for 17 points, struggling to create space against a Suns defense that swarmed him. Even when he did, he didn\u2019t have the same type of lift he had in the last game.<\/p>\n
The Warriors were only ever going to go as far as Curry could carry them in this Play-In. Friday night was a reminder of the limit \u2014 even for him. On the other side, Jalen Green had his most important game as a pro and set the tone for the rest of his Suns teammates.<\/p>\n
Now Curry and the Warriors head into an uncertain offseason, with Curry\u2019s ailing right knee a central concern. Curry\u2019s greatness hasn\u2019t gone anywhere. But on this night, after a long season, it wasn\u2019t enough to extend the Warriors\u2019 season for a couple more weeks. \u2014 Nick Friedell, Warriors writer\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not overlooked<\/p>\n
Jalen Green was the star, but Jordan Goodwin set the tone.<\/p>\n
He had three steals in the opening minutes. He chased Stephen Curry. That\u2019s what Goodwin does: hustle, hound and harass. It isn\u2019t always pretty \u2014 he grabbed an offensive rebound in traffic in the first half and rushed a miss that didn\u2019t hit the rim \u2014 but what he provides is invaluable.<\/p>\n
In addition to his defense, Goodwin finished with 19 points, nine rebounds (four offensive), five steals and two assists \u2014 a performance that shouldn\u2019t be overlooked. \u2014 Haller\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jalen Green missed all three regular-season meetings between the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors. He made up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,164,6,2065,472,4045,604],"class_list":{"0":"post-712986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state-warriors","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-phoenix-suns","13":"tag-phoenixsuns","14":"tag-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116424324897584172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}