The Golden State Warriors beat the Phoenix Suns 118-96 at Chase Center on Friday, ending the opponent's 18-game winning streak and replacing the Suns to lead the Western Conference.

Stephen Curry drained six triples to get 23 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Warriors. He reached 19,000 points in career score and is only 28 3-pointers away (2,846) from surpassing Ray Allen (2,973) to be the leader of this category in NBA history.

The Warriors as a whole were 19-39 from downtown at home on Friday night. Eight of their 10-man rotation scored something behind the arc, including Draymond Green, who made even more valuable contributions on defense by getting six turnovers and three blocks.

Meanwhile, the Warriors were also happy to see Gary Payton II and Juan Toscano-Anderson make secret weapons off the bench. Payton II, who averaged only 0.5 triples at 36 percent this season, was 3-5 at the 3-point line against the Suns. It was the nine straight points he scored in the fourth quarter that extended the Warriors' lead to 20 points and turned the game a far-gone conclusion.

Toscano-Anderson made one 3-pointer, too, but his presence on the floor was more universal. Not only did he have 17 points, five rebounds, and five assists, the dunk he slammed over JaVale McGee belongs to nothing but the top 10 plays of the year.

In fact, the surprising performance of Payton II and Toscano-Anderson was what the Suns lacked on Friday night. Since Devin Booker sat on this game due to injury, the rest of the team must do more to make up for his absence.

Unfortunately, they failed to do that. Chris Paul made several tough shots in the middle range, but he lacked aggressiveness in general, which could be seen by the number of field goal (FG) attempts he took (eight). Jae Crowder was only 1-5 from downtown, and it's simply ridiculous for Cameron Payne to take 17 shots, the most within the Suns.

Deandre Ayton was the biggest and the only advantage the Suns had over the Warriors in Friday's game. One could argue that he did a good job offensively by scoring team-high 23 points and drawing 11 free throws, the most on the floor. However, it didn't cover the fact that Ayton missed nine of his 16 FG attempts and thus had the second-worst plus/minus of -16 in the team.

That exposed a problem of Ayton on offense. He has an advantage in size, power and agility against most of the big men in today's NBA. He also has more finishing methods than blue-collar centers. Nonetheless, Ayton lacks consistency and signature offensive moves. That's why he's able to make Kevon Looney commit four early personal fouls but failed to exploit that advantage. When it was Green defending him, Ayton also seemed lost at what to do.

"They did a good job of speeding us up," Suns head coach Monty Williams said. "We did that to them the other day. That's part of the chess match. When we got to the paint and found guys, it was phenomenal in the second quarter but that's the only quarter we did it consistently."

"We know that we're trying to catch them, not vice-versa," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. "We haven't been in the playoffs for two years. We're trying to catch them and we know they're the best team in the West until somebody knocks them off."

The two sides seemed to have built a rivalry already after two games in three days.

Other games on Friday (away teams come first):

Miami Heat 113-104 Indiana Pacers

Cleveland Cavaliers 116-101 Washington Wizards

Philadelphia 76ers 98-96 Atlanta Hawks

Minnesota Timberwolves 105-110 Brooklyn Nets

Orlando Magic 116-118 Houston Rockets

New Orleans Pelicans 107-91 Dallas Mavericks

Los Angeles Clippers 119-115 Los Angeles Lakers