Preview: Struggling Suns host coach Steve Kerr, surging Golden State Warriors

It's been a tough week.

And now the Phoenix Suns have to face the surging Golden State Warriors, who reside in "ROARacle" Arena by the way, in front of home fans Markieff Morris just accused of not even providing a "home court advantage".

Ouch.

What I'd like to see is Markieff take the microphone before tipoff to thank Suns fans for their support and to apologize for having a bad moment last week. He needs to do something to ensure he's back in the good graces of the fans, and taking the mic would be a great way to do it.

Details

• What: Phoenix Suns vs. Golden State Warriors
• Where: US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona
• When: 7:00 PM
• TV: FoxSports Arizona
• Radio: ArizonaSports 98.7 FM

The Warriors

I'll just leave this here.

Unbelievable.

And that's some of what the Suns will be facing on Monday night at US Airways Center. After a week in which they struggled to score against the Spurs and Cavaliers, now the Suns must face the league's best defense.

Their offensive rating in SECOND in the league and their defensive rating is FIRST. Their point differential, as you might expect, is tops in the league.

It's not even fair, really.

The team is so good that Andre Iguodala and David Lee come off the bench.

Need I go on?

Check out more on the Warriors at our SB Nation brother site Golden State Of Mind

The Suns

And now the Suns version. This isn't as pretty as Curry's, but it was a game clincher.

The Suns are hoping to get Alex Len back in the lineup on Monday night. They are going to need him to have any chance against Andrew Bogut.

Without Len, the only way the Suns are even passable on defense is to play at 100 miles per hour, slapping down passes and rotating into good rebounding position before the other team knows what's coming.

With Len, the Suns have some semblance of traditional rebounding and their defense is slightly better, but the offense is a lot worse.

Len has a net negative rating this year (-1.0). But hey, that's better than Brandon Knight's net rating (-7.8), T.J. Warren's net rating (-5.8) and Archie Goodwin's (-19.9). But no one loses the net rating war better than Marcus Thornton (-27.3) and Earl Barron (-31.3).

Surprisingly enough, Gerald Green is a net-0 so far this year (the Suns are dead even in scoring when he's been on the court).

The Suns net-rating winners among all players who have donned a Suns uni this year: Markieff Morris (+9.9) and Eric Bledsoe (+4.2). You can see why they each play 34+ minutes per game.

Markieff Morris is the Suns' net rating all star. The offense is 2 points better with him on the court (just like Bledsoe), and the defense is a whopping 8 points better with him on the court. Despite his low rebounding numbers, the Suns are nearly dead even on rebound rate (49.8%) with him on the floor versus awful with him on the bench (46.8%). This has been the case all season long.

The Lineups

Out on a limb

The Suns beat the Warriors in Phoenix in the first two weeks of the season with a 34-12 blitz in the fourth quarter keyed almost entirely by Isaiah Thomas and Gerald Green. IT and Gerald combined for 41 points on the game, with 31 of them coming in that crazy quarter.

The Warriors were playing without Klay Thompson but still began the season with only two losses in the first month+ and one of the those was to the Suns.

Can the Suns do that again?

Don't go out on a limb, now...

Prediction

Don't make me do this.

Don't make me do this.

Don't make me do this.

Okay fine...this is the bright side...

I predict the Suns will wi--

Can't do it. Sorry.