OAKLAND -- The Warriors went into full experimentation mode Monday night, and the results were mixed at best.
The Phoenix Suns, 12 hours after receiving the news that their general manager had been fired, rolled into Oracle Arena and played as if the score mattered, dropping a 117-109 loss on the Warriors.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr made it clear before the game that this was a night to watch players on non-guaranteed contracts trying to make the roster. With that in mind, he rested regulars Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Klay Thompson.
Here are three takeaways from a game in which Kerr was ejected and most of the Warriors would just as soon forget.
Triples from the pine
The team's most potent bench scorers are point guard Quinn Cook and big man Jonas Jerebko, both of whom have a history of making 3-pointers and neither of whom buried a triple in either of the first two preseason games.
They corrected that against the Suns.
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Cook scored 11 points, on 4-of-8 shooting (including 1-of-2 from deep) and added two assists and two rebounds in his 18 minutes.
Jerebko scored 6 points on 2-of-6 shooting, but he made two of his four attempts from beyond the arc. He also grabbed three rebounds and passed for three assists.
The lone area in which the Warriors have consistently struggled is in getting firepower off the bench. Cook and Jerebko have the goods to provide it, and these were the first glimpses.
Highs and lows of Damian Jones
Jones has started at center for every preseason game, and he's still clearly a work in progress. He's a promising work, but a work nonetheless.
Getting his longest run so far -- 23 minutes -- Jones was mostly good on offense, scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting and -- in the surprise of the night -- recording a team-high-tying five assists, including some very crafty passing.
Defensively, Jones made an impressive statement in the second quarter by providing help-side defense and swatting a Ryan Anderson jump shot into the first row along the baseline.
Yet there were several occasions when Jones simply got lost in traffic, which lead to easy points for the Suns. He badly missed a couple rotations and failed to activate on at least two switches.
When Kerr talks about wanting consistency from Jones, this is what he means.
McKinnie makes his case
Alfonzo McKinnie was invited to camp with the hope that he could stay with the Warriors, even if it meant signing with G-League Santa Cruz. He hadn't done much to distinguish himself in the first two games, shooting 2-of-7 from the field while grabbing eight rebounds in 20 minutes, mostly with the second or third unit.
He brought some game with him Monday night, playing 22 minutes and totaling 11 points (on 5-of-7 shooting from the field) and grabbing six rebounds.
It's highly unlikely McKinnie will be on the NBA roster when the season opens, but he looked like the guy the Warriors had been describing in practices.
