Stephen Curry buried a 33-foot 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left and the Golden State Warriors survived a chaotic finish to defeat the Phoenix Suns 113-112 on Saturday night in San Francisco.
After a late flurry by Devin Booker gave the Suns a two-point lead with 35.6 seconds remaining, each team had an empty trip up the floor, leaving Golden State just 3.3 seconds for one final possession.
Inbounding from the side, Brandin Podziemski found Curry near midcourt with a lengthy bounce pass, and the league’s all-time 3-point leader stepped forward and nailed the go-ahead hoop.
It was Curry’s ninth triple of the game.
The Suns weren’t done. They used a timeout to advance the ball to their offensive end of the floor with 0.7 seconds left, then appeared to catch a break when referees deemed that Andrew Wiggins had fouled Booker on an inbounds pass.
But after a long review, the foul was ruled to have occurred just as the ball was reaching Booker, and with Golden State having a foul to give without penalty, the net result was nothing more than another Phoenix possession but with 0.6 seconds left.
This time, Draymond Green deflected the inbounds pass and Golden State walked off with its first win in four tries against Phoenix this season.
Earlier, Booker almost single-handedly won the game for the Suns, scoring 12 of their 16 points and assisting on the other two hoops during a 16-8 run that turned a late 102-96 deficit into a 112-110 lead before Curry’s heroics.
Curry finished with 30 points to lead the Warriors, who won their fourth in a row. He went 9-for-16 from beyond the arc, helping the hosts outscore the Suns 51-33 from deep.
Gary Payton II, returning from a 16-game absence due to a hamstring injury, made all five of his shots and contributed 11 points, one block and a steal to the win. Jonathan Kuminga had 21 points, Green added 15 to go with seven rebounds and a game-high nine assists, Wiggins chipped in 12 points and Podziemski posted 10 to complement eight rebounds and seven helpers.
Booker finished with a game-high 32 points for the Suns, who had won three straight.
Kevin Durant had a 24-point, 10-rebound double-double for Phoenix, while Bradley Beal added 15 points and two steals.
Neither team led by more than seven in the first half, which ended with Golden State up 59-58.
–Field Level Media
