The Golden State Warriors kicked off their season on Tuesday, the 24th of October with an opening night loss to the Phoenix Suns led by Devin Booker’s 32 points and a clutch layup from Nurkic in the end to close out the game 108-104. Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 27 points and Chris Paul finished with 9 assists on his debut.
In the first quarter, The Suns got off to a quick start jumping out to an early 13-5 lead, and it was the Warriors bench that gathered momentum for them leading to a 14-4 run at the end of the quarter making it 28-28.
In the second quarter the Suns struck back with a 33 point quarter jumping out to a double-digit point halftime lead 61-46.
In the third quarter The Warriors gained back momentum with a 40 point quarter in the 3rd taking the lead back and leading by 6 at the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter was pretty back and forth with it being 100-99 going into the final 2 minutes. Josh Okogie hit a 3 and Steph hit free throws to make it 103-101 going into the final minute, Booker came up clutch with 2 assists first to Eric Gordon who hit the 3 to make it 106-101 but then Steph cut the lead back to 2 from a step back 3 off a Kuminga rebound. The 2nd of Booker’s assists was to Nurkic who closed out the game with his layup ending the game 108-104.
Both teams go into the season after their respective 2nd round losses in the Playoffs last season. The Warriors and Suns went into the game without a key player each, Draymond Green (GSW) Bradley Beal (PHX).
KD played in front of the Warriors fans for the first time since his departure and Chris Paul played his former team for the first time. In the offseason Chris Paul was traded from the Suns to the Wizards for Bradley Beal and then the Warriors traded Jordan Poole to the Wizards for Chris Paul.
Fans should expect even with the new changes to each team that both will still have big championship aspirations and could meet in the playoffs.
