Phoenix Suns go down 117-107 to the Golden State Warriors, lose franchise-record 15th straight

The Phoenix Suns again had designs on upsetting a top-tier team late in the season, but the Golden State Warriors woke up quicker than the Houston Rockets and rolled the Suns in the 2nd half, pulling out a 117-107 victory and sending Phoenix to its franchise-record 15th consecutive loss.

The Suns held a 14-point lead in the 2nd quarter, but Golden State turned it on late, making four of their six 3-pointers in the period over the final 1:59 to close the 1st half on a 14-5 run. That momentum carried over into the 3rd quarter for the Warriors, who outscored Phoenix 36-18 in the 3rd quarter to lead 94-77 going into the last 12 minutes. The Suns would trim Golden State’s biggest lead (21) to single digits in the 4th quarter, but the outcome was never really in doubt.

Josh Jackson and Marquese Chriss each scored 22 points for the Suns, and Danuel House had a new career high in the 1st half alone, scoring 10 points and even throwing an alley-oop pass off the backboard to himself for the slam. House finished with 16 points. Dragan Bender had a double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds), but 11 of those points came in the 1st quarter. Tyler Ulis, getting another start, finished with 12 points and eight assists.

The Warriors were led by Kevin Durant and his near triple-double (29 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists). Klay Thompson had 23 points in his second game back from injury, Quinn Cook added 19 points, and Draymond Green had 13 points, 12 assists, and six rebounds.

Golden State started the game 0 of 6 from 3 but went 11 of 14 over the middle quarters. The Suns, meanwhile, were 9 of 18 from 3 in the 1st half but went 2 of 13 in the 2nd half once the Warriors tightened the screws.