The Golden State Warriors were delivered a gut punch both literally and figurately late in Thursday's heart-breaking 99-98 loss to the Phoenix Suns on the road.
Down 96-91 with just over 30 seconds remaining, Dillon Brooks opened the door for the Warriors with an unnecessary punch to Stephen Curry's mid-section well after the 2x MVP had unfurled a missed 3-point attempt.
Brooks was assessed a flagrant one foul and Curry calmly knocked down both free-throws, before Jimmy Butler quickly drilled a wing three to make it a five-point possession and suddenly tie the scores.
After Devin Booker gave the Suns back the lead with a mid-range jump-shot, Curry got back to the line and tied the scores again. The game appeared destined for overtime when Brooks badly missed his 3-point attempt, only for Moses Moody to foul Jordan Goodwin on the rebound scramble with 0.4 seconds on the clock.
Goodwin missed the first terribly short, but came up clutch to make the second. The Warriors were without a timeout, leaving them hit with another disappointing loss in the clutch that pushes them two games below .500 on the season.
Warriors hit with another devastating loss on Thursday night
While it's easy to look back at the closing minutes, Golden State will once again focus on their costly turnovers and a generally inept offense in the second-half. With Jimmy Butler roaring to life after a couple of quiet games, the Warriors held a 62-48 lead two minutes into the third-quarter.
They would proceed to score just 25 points over the next nearly 20 minutes, having struggled to generate any kind of shot-making beyond Butler and a productive performance from Brandin Podziemski off the bench.
Butler had 31 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the floor and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line, while Podziemski hit a series of mid-range jumpers on his way to 18 points on a highly efficient 8-of-11 shooting while finishing as a +15 in nearly 28 minutes.
Outside of that duo, the Warriors shot an incredibly poor 16-of-62 (25.8%) from the floor. Curry made some clutch free-throws in the final minute, but otherwise couldn't repeat his heroics from the previous two games.
The 37-year-old finished with 15 points on 3-of-14 shooting, while three other starters -- Draymond Green, Quinten Post and Moses Moody -- combined to shoot 8-of-33 from the floor and 4-of-22 from beyond the arc.
Golden State's lack of offensive potency and consistency continues to be a major problem, with the two sides set to meet again back at Chase Center on Saturday.