The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

DEANDRE Ayton recorded his second double double and his Phoenix Suns dominated the defending NBA champions in a tense physical game that featured an ejection and seven technical fouls.

Ayton finished with 16 points and a game high 14 rebounds in the Suns’ 134-105 win over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ayton picked up a technical foul of his own, following a series of scuffles with Warriors forward Draymond Green that concluded with both players on the floor.

“I felt like he was trying to get on my nerves the whole game. Coach [Monty Williams] was telling me ‘he is just trying to get you a technical foul]. I just wanted the refs to see it. I wasn’t going to keep fighting someone who wanted to front me,” Ayton said of his matchup with the much maligned Green.

“I tried to seal him, I guess he pulled the chair from me and I felt like it was getting a little junky because I came back down and he tried to pull me down with him when I was setting a screen. A lot of teams do that and try to attack me. Right now when I’m in foul trouble early, not in the postseason. Most definitely trying to be out on the floor and be there for our teammates.”

Green finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Phoenix used a 13-0 run midway through the first to take a 37-29 lead by the end of the quarter and eventually took a 72-66 lead at the break. The Suns began to pull away in the third quarter when they outscored the Warriors by 13 (33-20) and by 10 in the fourth (29-19).

Ayton said the Suns responded well to the physical style of play set by the Warriors as they improved to 3-1 in the young season.

The tension between the teams came to a head in the third quarter when Warriors guard Klay Thompson received the first ejection of his career following a heated exchange with the Suns’ Devin Booker. Thompson held up four fingers to signify the four championships the Warriors have won over the past decade. “We definitely absorbed all of that, we fought through it and we threw our hits back as well so they definitely took some licks from us too,” Ayton said. “It got to them. Teams don’t like that when you keep hitting them over and over again, especially to the legal limit. People get frustrated and they complain to the refs.”

Through four games, Ayton is averaging 18.3 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game on 55 percent shooting from the field.

Ayton notched 30 double-doubles last year in only 58 games played and already has two in the first week of the season.

“The game got a little junky and we stayed here [made hand gesture chest height] and I was really proud of that because that showed a lot of growth because last year I think we would have kept going back and forth, that was one of the games where them dudes wanted us to go back and forth with baskets and they would end up taking over the game later so we definitely had to put them away,” he said. “We picked up some fouls and some technicals, even I did, but it was mainly a response to us getting beaten up. Although it’s an emotional game, at the same time we got back to playing Suns basketball. We forget about it, calls didn’t go our way, we didn’t care, we made it our game. We closed it out the right way. Couldn’t close it any better.”

Phoenix returns to the court 10pm tonight when they host the New Orleans Pelicans.