Phoenix Suns End 18 Game Losing Streak To Golden State

The Golden State Warriors hardly looked like NBA Championship contenders on Sunday night as they lost at home to the lowly Phoenix Suns 115-111. Golden State had been a whopping -17 point NBA betting favorite in the game. With the victory, Phoenix ended an 18 game losing streak to the Warriors.

Golden State has lost 4 of their last 6 but are still atop the Western Conference 1.5 games ahead of the Denver Nuggets. The Warriors had beaten the Nuggets 122-105 at home on Friday night. The Warriors have no trouble in the Pacific Division–only one other team in the division is in a position to make the playoffs. The LA Clippers currently hold the #8 playoff spot in the Western Conference and Golden State leads them by 7.5 games in the division. At this point, the Houston Rockets are playing the best ball in the West winning 8 straight games and cutting their deficit to 4 games. Oklahoma City and Portland are tied for 4th and 5th and are 5 games back with Utah, San Antonio and the Clippers tied for positions 6, 7, and 8 all 7.5 games back.

Phoenix fell off the map in the Western Conference a long time ago. Even with Sunday’s victory they are 16-52 and 30 games out of first place. This was only their sixth road victory this season (6-29). To avoid finishing in the Pacific Division basement the Suns would have to run down the 4th place Los Angeles Lakers and they’re 15 games behind meaning they’re ‘locked in’ to last place.

After the game, Stephen Curry reminded the media that the team was in a similar mode last season before they went on to win their second straight NBA title and third in four seasons:

“Let’s not forget last year was way worse than this, way worse than this, with injuries and things like that. We have pretty much everybody healthy. We talked about the things we need to get better at going into the playoffs and just haven’t done it. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, which I think we like right now.”

“We’re getting challenged, we’re getting teams’ best shots.”

The Warriors shot only 44.2% from the field and just 23.3% from three point range. Curry emphasized that every team has nights when shots just won’t fall:

“One game, you miss shots. We took ones we thought we could make. If they go down this could be a totally different conversation. So don’t overreact to that.”

The Warriors face another tough test in their next game as they hit the road to take on the red hot Rockets in Houston.