The Golden State Warriors look to remain unbeaten at home against a team that has yet to win on the road when they host the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night in San Francisco.
Playing at home for the first of just two times over a 12-game stretch, the Warriors will take the court saddled with a two-game losing streak after falling to the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers.
All three Warriors home performances to date have been impressive, beginning with an overtime win over the Denver Nuggets and shifting to blowout triumphs over the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers.
Significantly, Golden State has had the last two days off. The veteran club has responded well when rested this season, winning convincingly on opening night in Los Angeles against the Lakers before using its first two-day break to rest up for a 131-118 victory over the Grizzlies.
One Warriors veteran, Jimmy Butler III, criticized his teammates for not “giving a damn” in the two losses in the Midwest. Stephen Curry accepted part of the blame after committing five turnovers in each of the sloppy defeats.
“This is one of those games where you just look in the mirror,” Curry admitted after Saturday’s 114-109 loss at Indiana. “There were parts of the game where I made it too hard on all of us — not getting organized, bad possessions, a little lack of energy.”
Curry wasn’t particularly effective in the Warriors’ 2-2 split with the Suns last season. He shot just 4-for-16 on 3-point attempts in the losses, one of which happened in January in San Francisco.
Butler had yet to be acquired while Phoenix took two of the first three, then he contributed 10 points to a 133-95 shellacking on the road in April.
Like Golden State, the Suns have looked like different teams at home and on the road this season. They are coming off consecutive wins over the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs to close a 2-1 homestand that gave them a 3-1 record at home.
But they went 0-for-the-road during a four-day, three-game trek to face the Clippers, Nuggets and Jazz — dropping those October games by a total of 53 points.
Devin Booker, clearly the team leader in the wake of Kevin Durant’s departure for Houston, spearheaded the current two-game winning streak with 36 points against the Jazz and 28 points with 13 assists against the Spurs.
Having won two in a row after dropping four straight, Booker reminded the media after Sunday’s win over the previously unbeaten Spurs that basketball is a game of runs — and the Suns need to take advantage of their current one.
“It’s something we talked about before the game: Stringing (wins) together,” Booker said. “Understanding that it can turn over at any time, even after we had lost three or four straight. Just sticking with it. We have the right locker room, the right mentality.”
Booker, who averaged 29 points in the two wins over the Warriors last season, attacks Golden State where it was most vulnerable during its losses to Milwaukee and Indiana — on the perimeter.
The Warriors were scorched by unheralded guard Ryan Rollins for a career-high 32 points in Milwaukee before watching two-way player Quenton Jackson pour in a career-high 25 points in their Indiana loss.
