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Warriors rest Curry and Green and start 0-3 for the first time in 19 years cover
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Warriors rest Curry and Green and start 0-3 for the first time in 19 years

Golden State sat four regulars on the third night in four days and lost 131-122 at Phoenix. Devin Booker scored 43 against what was left.

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  • The Golden State Warriors rested Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Brandin Podziemski and Al Horford on Saturday night and lost 131-122 at Phoenix, falling to 0-3 for the first time in 19 years, according to the Associated Press.

    It was Golden State's third game in four days. Curry was listed with a right knee issue, and Podziemski, Green and Horford all with low backs, the AP said. Devin Booker took full advantage, scoring 43 points on 17-of-25 shooting, which the NBA said is a Suns home-opener record.

  • The Warriors were not blown out. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg scored a season-high 26 points and made six 3-pointers, De'Anthony Melton added 25, and Brandon Williams scored 20 off the bench. Golden State made 17 threes and led by as many as seven, per ESPN's box score. Phoenix took over in the third quarter, when Booker scored 17 and the Suns put up 45 points. Luke Kennard's 3 made it 117-102 with six minutes left.

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  • The loss came one night after Golden State blew a 12-point lead to Memphis and went the final 3:47 without a field goal. Saturday's 16 turnovers did not help either, and those had nothing to do with who was resting.

    The RANT take: resting your stars on the back end of a three-games-in-four-nights stretch is defensible in a vacuum. It is a lot harder to defend when the first two games were losses too. Golden State has to decide whether this roster is built to win now or built to manage minutes, because right now it is doing neither.

    Phoenix is 1-1 after losing its opener 124-83 at Portland.