PHOENIX -- After his team narrowly pulled out a 106-100 victory in the desert Sunday, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr admitted that during a portion of the contest his players were frustrated with how slowly everything is coming along.
"We were frustrated in the first half. You guys can all see it. This is not coming easily," Kerr said. "We have a new team and a lot of different faces, but even for the returning guys, it's a different mix."
This is the second straight close game in which the Warriors have partaken. They've won both contests on the road, but the wins were against an injury-stricken New Orleans Pelicans team and a rebuilding Phoenix Suns squad. Their lone loss was a lopsided 29-point rout to the San Antonio Spurs on opening night at Oracle Arena.
Stephen Curry ended the night at Talking Stick Resort Arena with 28 points and was 5-of-8 from long distance in 34 minutes of play. Kevin Durant registered a game-high 37 points on 10-of-16 shooting and got to the free throw line 16 times, converting 15 of them.
"That's something we didn't have really the last couple of years," Kerr said, "a guy who can just turn nothing into something and get us a couple of points."
Curry and Durant combined to go 19-of-33 from the field (58 percent), but their teammates shot an abysmal 16-of-45 (32 percent). That is frustrating the guys.
"Our offense is not going right now like it will," Draymond Green said after the win in which he grabbed 13 boards, dished out a game-high nine assists and had three blocked shots. "We are just missing shots right now, so in order to win games, we've got to pick it up on the defensive end and bring the intensity."
Kerr offered his opinion on the shots they've been launching.
"I think we're having some open shots, but we're not really getting rhythm shots and that's been our hallmark for the last couple of years," he said.
Phoenix used its youth and athleticism to convert Golden State's 16 turnovers into 25 points. A lack of chemistry and hesitancy has shown throughout the team's first three games. Miscommunication and blown assignments have been rampant, leading to coughing up the ball and head-scratching plays.
Kerr said he's calling more plays than usual to build some form of continuity until his players can figure it out.
"We had some good individual efforts to help us pull it out," Kerr said, "but the main thing is while we're going through this early part of the season sorting through rotations and offensively trying to get going, we just have to compete and pick up our share of wins and we'll find our stride eventually."
What did please Kerr was that his players figured things out on the defensive end in the second half. After giving up 57 points to the Suns in the first two quarters, they held them to 43 points the rest of the way, with Green anchoring the defense.
"He was amazing," Durant said. "He was controlling the game on the defensive end, being everywhere making great reads on the offensive end ... blocking shots. He was everywhere."
Kerr says he's a patient guy, adding that he doesn't have an idea of how long it's going to take to see his team mesh. But he made it abundantly clear that it's not happening yet.
"We're not clicking and everybody can see that," Kerr said.