Achilles Heel (Warriors 96, Suns 104)

The much-hyped regular season matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns lived up to the billing, as the two Western Conference heavyweights battled it out in front of a playoff-style atmosphere at the Footprint Center. The Warriors, the best team by record in the league, were facing the Suns, winners of 16 straight games. In a battle between an unstoppable force and an immovable object, something had to give. At the end of the day, it was the Warriors who blinked first, and the fashion of their loss was consistent with the other losses they’ve suffered this season. A bunch of turnovers? Check – the Warriors had 22 turnovers, the same as their prior loss to the Grizzlies. Struggles from their stars? Check – Stephen Curry had one of the worst shooting nights of his career, putting up just 12 points on 4-21 shooting, including a 3-14 night from deep, and fellow starter Andrew Wiggins, looking quite immobile after nearly being ruled out for this game due to pregame back spasms, had just 10 points on 4-12 shooting. A crunch time collapse? Check – when the closing lineup checked into the game with just under 6 minutes left, the score was 90-89. Until a couple of meaningless garbage time buckets, the only point they scored was a bizarre technical free throw, awarded when Monty Williams, thinking a timeout was going to be called, wandered onto the court. The Phoenix Suns are undoubtedly a fantastic team, long, rangy, and feisty on defense, perpetually in control on offense, and they played the Warriors as well as any team that I’ve seen, particularly on the defensive end of the floor, where they seemed to disrupt every single one of the Dubs’ pet actions. But while Devin Booker watched from the sidelines, having tweaked his hamstring and left the game in the second quarter, the Warriors blew a chance to win an eminently winnable game, losing 104-96. The good news? They don’t have to wait long for a rematch – these same teams duel again on Friday night at Chase Center. The bad news? The Warriors have a clear Achilles heel, and it (or more precisely, the things that define it) are cropping up in each of the Dubs’ losses.

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