Draymond Got Tossed, and the Warriors Woke Up

A first half Golden State would like back

Phoenix owned the start, and it was not close. The Suns took the first quarter 31–19 and pushed the margin to 17 in the second, when Devin Booker's jumper made it 55–39 with 3:47 left before halftime. Golden State — playing its seventh different starting lineup in eight games, on the second night of a back-to-back — looked every bit as tired as that sounds. A 12–0 burst late in the half cut it to four, Booker answered at the line, and Phoenix went in up 57–51, with Curry stuck on nine points. He and Green had both sat out Sunday's win over the Clippers to be fresh for this rematch. Fresh was not the word anybody would have used.

Then the third quarter started, and the game changed for the strangest possible reason.

Two minutes into the third, Draymond lost it — and found the game

Two minutes into the third quarter, with Golden State trailing by double digits, Suns center Khaman Maluach knocked Green to the floor in the paint. Green got up, wrapped his arms around the 7-footer and threw him to the floor. That drew a personal foul and a technical foul for the throw-down.

Dillon Brooks sprinted in to confront Green, the two pushed and shoved, Green put a hand on Brooks' neck, and players, coaches and officials had to pull them apart. After review, both drew technical fouls — Green's second of the sequence, an automatic ejection, his first of the season and the 23rd regular-season ejection of his career. He finished with four points, four rebounds and two assists in 17 minutes.

The ejection, it turned out, was the best thing that happened to Golden State all night.

"We had to respond, so I'm glad we did," Curry said afterward. "He lit a fire in all of us." Podziemski agreed it was needed: "We didn't have the edge to us to start the game… Everybody's locked and came together for Dray."

Curry's second half was the whole story

The response was immediate. Golden State ripped off a 16–5 run to tie the game at 73, and Curry — nine points in the first half — scored 18 in the third quarter alone and 25 after halftime. The Warriors put up 42 points in the third, and Podziemski tied it at 93 on the final possession of the quarter off a kickout from rookie Yaxel Lendeborg.

Curry finished with 34 points, seven assists and six rebounds, on 9-for-21 shooting and 5-for-13 from three, and went 11-for-12 at the line — his third straight game of 30 or more. The one miss, on his final attempt with five seconds left, was his first missed free throw of the season after 51 straight makes.

He did not do it alone. Charles Bassey, picking up most of Green's second-half minutes at center, scored a career-best 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting with eight rebounds. Podziemski added 20, Lendeborg 16 with five rebounds and five assists — four of them finding Bassey for layups and dunks, a night after the rookie's career-high 37 against the Clippers — and Georges Niang 13 off the bench.

Curry vs. Booker, by our numbers: Curry 34 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists (9-for-21 from the field, 5-for-13 from three, 11-for-12 at the line, +21). Booker 26 points and 5 assists on 8-for-18 shooting — and he fouled out with 58 seconds left, watching the close from the bench. The full game lives in the Game Center, and the rest of the league lives on our NBA hub.

How they closed it without him

Golden State did not lead once until Bassey converted a Curry assist on the first possession of the fourth to make it 95–93, and from there it was a possession game, the margin never wider than seven either way. Bassey's two free throws tied it at 106 with 4:39 to play. Curry missed a three on the next trip, but De'Anthony Melton kept the possession alive with an offensive rebound and found Niang for the open three that broke the quarter's fifth tie and put the Warriors ahead for good, 109–106, with 3:54 left.

The last two minutes were Curry doing closer things: two free throws at 2:06, then the defensive play of the night — he slapped the ball away from Booker, and Podziemski turned the turnover into two free throws and a 113–108 lead with 1:47 to go. Booker fouled out with 58 seconds left on 26 points and five assists. Miles Bridges added 21 for Phoenix and Brooks 18, in the Suns' third straight loss, which dropped them to 1–4. Jalen Green's dunk cut it to 113–112 with 14.2 seconds left, but Curry buried three more free throws in the final 7.4 seconds, and Collin Gillespie's buzzer heave came up well short.

Five straight, and the shape of it is starting to mean something

Golden State started this season 0–3. The Warriors are 5–3 now, winners of five straight, and their last loss is the one Phoenix handed them nine days ago — 131–122 in Phoenix on October 24, still the Suns' only win of the season. This one came midway through a six-game homestand, on a back-to-back, and for the final 22 minutes without the player who has run their defense for a decade.

The chaos is still the tax. Green's fire won this game in the most backwards way possible, and everybody in the building, Curry included, said so. But a team that needs its defensive anchor ejected to find its edge is playing with something that will burn it eventually. Miami comes to Chase Center on Thursday. The Warriors will take the win, the streak and the warning, all three.