Phoenix Suns (1-1) beat Golden State Warriors (0-3) 131-122 at home on Saturday, October 24 in a shootout, with the two teams combining for 253 points.
How it unfolded
Both teams scored freely: Golden State Warriors 122 and Phoenix Suns 131. The Suns led 3 at the half and kept it going.
What decided it
The Suns shot 66.3% on an effective basis to 54.4% for the Warriors and the Suns gave the ball away on 14.8% of their possessions while the Warriors did so 15.7% of the time. Shot quality is the biggest of the four factors, and it was the clearest gap.
The Warriors did win one battle, second chances: ORB% of 36.5% against 26.5%. The Suns made up for it elsewhere.
The game played at about 102 possessions per team. The Suns scored 128.6 points per 100 possessions and the Warriors scored 119.7, a difference of 8.9.
Who made the difference
Devin Booker (PHX) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (35.2): 43 pts, 7 reb, 7 ast on 17-25 shooting. The team was +2 in the minutes Devin played.
For the Warriors, De'Anthony Melton was the best of the rest at 23.3: 25 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl on 8-13 shooting.
Graham Ike (12 pts, 10 reb, 2 ast) recorded a double-double.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
The result fit the pre-game Win Meter, which gave the Suns about a 73% chance.
Across the last 9 meetings in our records, Golden State Warriors lead 5-4.
The Suns are now 1-1, and the Warriors are 0-3. The Suns last five before this game: L-L-L-L-L.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.