The short-handed Golden State Warriors had no answer for Devin Booker in Saturday's 131-122 loss to the Suns on Saturday at Mortgage Matchup. Center.
Booker dropped 43 points on 17-of-25 shooting, and overall the Warriors (0-3) allowed the Suns (1-1) to shoot 58 percent from the field.
Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Brandin Podziemski and Al Horford were all resting on the second night of a back-to-back.
That left the Warriors with just 11 active players, with three of them on two-way contracts.
Gui Santos also left the game in third quarter with knee soreness and did not return.
Here are three takeaways from Saturday's game.
Warriors' Depth Centers Have More to Offer
Graham Ike and Charles Bassey held their own and then some against the Suns.
Ike had 12 points and 10 rebounds in 26 minutes. Bassey had 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 13 minutes.
In Friday's game against the Grizzlies, Ike started and played 12 minutes. Bassey was out with knee tendinitis.
Moving forward, the Warriors have to give them more than 12 combined minutes in a game that features Green and Horford.
Sure, neither is the caliber of three-point shooter that Horford is, and neither is the caliber of passer or defender that Green is.
But their size, rebounding and paint-scoring ability can help the Dubs and allow Green to play less often at the 5.
Dubs Miss Green's Defense, But Issues Are Bigger Than Green
In four regular-season games against the Suns last season, the Warriors allowed 107, 99, 116 and 97 points.
Green played in all those games.
Green continues to be the Warriors' best all-around defender. And surely he would have helped prevent the Warriors from allowing 74 second-half points.
But it can't be ignored that the Warriors allowed 127 to the Lakers on Wednesday when Green was active.
The common thread so far has been major issues keeping star guards from getting to their spots. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves combined for 51 points and 13 assists. Booker had 43 points and seven assists.
Even Ty Jerome, a guard who isn't a star, had 28 points.
Collectively, the Warriors are not guarding ball-handlers well enough. It starts with the point-of-attack defense, but their rotations are also letting them down.
They have to fix that to give themselves a shot at an early-season upswing.
Lendeborg's Shooting Continues to Look Real
Yaxel Lendeborg dropped a career-high 26 points on a career-high six threes.
In three games, he's shooting 42.1 percent from three.
He looks particularly comfortable taking side-step threes to his left. He's also shown the ability to hit pull-up threes in transition. Most importantly, he was canning catch-and-shoot threes with ease against the Suns.
One thing I look for when evaluating someone's shot is how close their misses are to going in. Against the Suns, most of his five misses were basically halfway down and out.
That's the mark of a good shooter.
Combined with his rebounding and passing, Lendeborg is already performing like an above-average offensive player.
The next step offensively is to incorporate him more into clutch-time sets with Curry. Perhaps he can unlock the offense, which can get bogged down at the end of games.
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