clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Phoenix Suns Game Preview Against Golden State Warriors: First Of Three-In-Three

By Dave King

This week, the Suns face the brutality of NBA life after a long lockout: every team has at least one "3-games-in-3-nights" series on their 2011-2012 schedule. The Suns (12-15) have 2 such opportunities for fun this season - the first kicking off with tonight's game against the Warriors (10-14) in California.

While real-life data shows that, so far, 3-in-3 isn't much different than any other scheduling phenomenon - thanks to some research by BSotS' own 7footer - the Suns happen to be sporting two of the oldest players in the NBA in Grant Hill and Steve Nash. Gentry will have to monitor their minutes, possibly even sitting one or both out of one of the games.

The most winnable game is tonight's and is likely to feature the most Nash and Hill minutes of the week unless it's a blowout in the 4th quarter. After that, the Suns fly to Denver for a mile-high game, followed by a home game against the Hawks. All in the span of about 50 hours. Considering the opponents, the Suns' history against those teams, and the venue of each game, if the Suns are going to "punt" any of these games to win the others, you'd have to "X" out the Denver game.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Tonight, the Suns face the Warriors - a team the Suns have found ways to beat in 11 of the last 12 regular-season meetings. The Warriors have failed to score 100 points in the last 4 meetings (averaging 92), while the Suns have averaged 106. The Suns won the first matchup this season, 102-91.

Cross your fingers that the Suns can continue this stretch of dominance.

Special gameday fun: use the comments section to create a caption for that awesome picture!

Take a look at the Warriors stats:

FG 3PT FT Rebounds Misc
G M M A Pct M A Pct M A Pct Off Def Tot Ast TO Stl Blk PF PPG
Monta Ellis 23 37.8 8.5 19.3 44.0 1.2 4.3 27.0 4.4 5.6 79.7 0.5 2.8 3.3 6.1 3.6 1.7 0.4 2.3 22.7
David Lee 23 37.0 7.6 14.9 51.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 3.0 4.1 72.6 3.0 7.0 10.0 2.6 2.8 1.0 0.5 3.5 18.2
Stephen Curry 15 32.7 6.7 13.4 49.8 2.4 5.5 43.4 1.7 2.3 74.3 0.7 3.4 4.1 6.7 3.0 2.0 0.3 2.9 17.5
Dorell Wright 23 29.3 4.0 9.1 43.3 1.9 5.0 37.1 1.5 1.9 77.3 0.9 3.5 4.4 1.8 0.8 0.9 0.3 1.7 11.3
Nate Robinson 17 22.3 3.4 8.4 40.8 0.9 3.1 30.2 2.2 2.5 86.0 0.4 1.8 2.2 4.5 1.4 1.0 0.1 2.2 9.9
Brandon Rush 24 24.4 3.1 6.2 50.3 1.7 3.0 56.3 1.3 1.6 76.9 0.5 2.7 3.3 1.2 1.1 0.6 0.8 1.4 9.2
Klay Thompson 24 16.7 3.0 6.3 47.0 1.5 3.0 49.3 0.2 0.2 100.0 0.2 1.3 1.5 1.3 1.1 0.5 0.3 2.4 7.5
Kwame Brown 9 20.7 2.3 4.4 52.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.7 3.8 44.1 1.8 4.6 6.3 0.4 1.6 0.9 0.0 2.3 6.3
Ekpe Udoh 24 19.0 1.6 4.1 38.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.9 1.4 64.7 1.2 2.3 3.5 0.7 0.9 0.6 1.5 2.8 4.1
Charles Jenkins 16 9.3 1.2 2.4 48.7 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.1 100.0 0.1 0.4 0.6 1.4 0.3 0.4 0.1 1.4 2.4
Andris Biedrins 21 17.5 1.2 2.0 61.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 20.0 1.2 3.5 4.7 0.2 0.4 0.7 1.2 3.0 2.4
Dominic McGuire 22 11.2 0.9 2.2 40.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.7 75.0 0.8 1.7 2.5 0.7 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.9 2.4
Jeremy Tyler 13 4.2 0.6 1.2 50.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.5 50.0 0.4 0.5 0.8 0.2 0.3 0.0 0.2 1.0 1.5
Chris Wright 7 2.7 0.1 0.4 33.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.6 75.0 0.3 0.4 0.7 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.6 0.7


For more coverage of the game:

Suns vs Warriors coverage

Golden State Of Mind

For more exclusive content, follow us on Twitter @Brightsidesun and "Like" us on Facebook.

More From Bright Side Of The Sun

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Bright Side of the Sun Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of Phoenix Suns news from Bright Side of the Sun