PHOENIX — Chaos is a ladder, one the Phoenix Suns keep inserting into games for better and for worse.
It was the former on Thursday, in the form of a 99-98 win over the Golden State Warriors.
Phoenix (15-12) at one point in the second half trailed by 14 inside of a fairly lifeless Mortgage Matchup Center and its star Devin Booker was once again struggling mightily.
But the Suns’ self-created havoc eventually turned the tide.
The final tally of points off turnovers ended at 30-18 Suns, with 19 of those 30 coming in the final two quarters. So were five of their seven second-chance points that mostly salvaged a notable offensive rebounding deficit of 15-12 in the Warriors’ favor.
No offensive rebound was bigger than Jordan Goodwin’s with less than a second on the clock.
After a five-point Suns lead with 40 seconds left evaporated on one possession thanks to another foolish foul by Dillon Brooks in crunch time, Booker scored on a middy before Stephen Curry made two free throws to tie it once more with 22 ticks to go.
Phoenix attempted to either get Booker involved or benefit from the flash-doubles sent his way.
The best it could do was a Brooks catch on the right wing at five seconds remaining with Draymond Green closing him out. Brooks tried a side-step, step-back 3 that wasn’t close, but it missed badly enough for Goodwin within a scrum to not only snag it but draw a foul as well.
After clanking the first free throw, he made the second. The Warriors (13-15), without any timeouts, tried a Hail Mary inbounds pass that did not yield a shot attempt.
Comeback complete!
Jordan Goodwin hit the go-ahead free throw with 0.4 seconds on the clock as the Suns edged the Warriors by one point in Phoenix on Thursday night. pic.twitter.com/1IpTxzd3xW
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) December 19, 2025
The 30 points off turnovers mark the second straight fixture the Suns have reached that figure. It is absolutely part of the Suns’ identity and headlines it in many ways.
Booker has heard opposing coaches reference it a few times but wanted to make sure they are known as more than just the try-hard team.
“I’m more on the side that we have a lot of talent over here too,” Booker said. “Yeah, the games have been a little junkyard and physical but we have some true hoopers over here, so that’s a good combination to have both of those things.”
The style just has to be corralled properly, and it’s growing more unstable the last couple of weeks.
The Suns initially turned a deadlock entering the fourth quarter into a six-point lead after going on a 14-5 run while Booker and Brooks rested, with Curry in to boot. Once the reverse happened and both checked in while Curry rested, it was a 11-4 Warriors spurt that made it a one-point Suns lead at 3:54 left.
Collin Gillespie then had giant back-to-back steals to push the Suns back in front 94-87, the seizing of control someone had to get to avoid the chaos that sprouted up anyway thanks to Brooks.
It’s back-to-back games now when Brooks has at least shifted the momentum of the game in the closing moments, if not potentially losing the Suns those contests with one play.
This was another bad decision, an extra swat at Curry in the corner on a 3-point attempt, a slap in the chest. Veteran defenders from time to time will go for a poke in the gut in pockets of time like that, but needless to say, this was not the time for Brooks to do it and this tap was more overt.
Brooks said he was trying to grab Curry in mid-air to prevent him from crashing the glass. Either way, can’t happen.
“Gotta do some soul-searching at home, that’s really it,” Brooks said. “Second time. I’ll learn from it.”
“We love everything about Dillon,” Suns head coach Jordan Ott said. “That edge, that competitive spirit — he’s the fire-starter in all that we do. We follow his lead. We just gotta get to the edge and not go over.”
As Ott pointed out, Brooks had 20 of his 24 points in the first half when the offense was totally stuck in mud.
Booker wisely described it as a type of combustion that is always unique.
“I’ll never get used to it,” Booker said. “We’ve talked about it, just channel it the right way. There’s some great in there, just sometimes the outcome isn’t the best and these last two games just the point of the game they’ve happened in have put us in a tough spot. We learn from it, we’re a full unit. We’re not mad at Dillon. We’re asking him to bring that energy, bring that fight every night. … It can be controlled.”
That last part remains to be seen given Brooks’ track record. It’s up to him to prove that to be correct so it’s all positives with everything he has brought to make the Suns better.
Booker had two of his 25 points in the first half. That included his first scoreless opening quarter of the season. That total of two was only the sixth time in the last nine seasons he’s amounted to that or fewer across a full first half, per Stathead. He missed seven of his first eight shots in the game.
Booker said postgame he attributed some of it to compression shorts that are designed to limit his movement and not overextend his right groin that he strained earlier in the month. In the second half, he was 8-for-12 from the field. He does not plan to wear them in the future after donning them for the first time on Sunday.
“I’ve always declined wearing them,” Booker said before joking that “maybe it’s just an excuse that I was shooting the ball bad.”
The motivation for trying them out was attempting to be as healthy as possible. So, it’s on to other solutions for doing that supposedly.
Booker already got off to a slow start this year before evening out, and he’s tumbled back down to that uninspiring form for the last month-plus, even with this second-half surge.
This is the worst 3-point shooting stretch of his career, dating back to the first week of November. Booker is now 20-for-89 (22.5%) from deep in the last 17 games.
He’s been able to overcome not-as-bad slumps from 3 over the years. But not this time.
Speculate away as to why that is the case but Booker needs to be much, much better immediately.
Oso Ighodaro and Goodwin closed the game in place of Mark Williams and Royce O’Neale.
Ighodaro’s defensive energy throughout resulted in 13 rebounds and five steals. Brooks apparently saw the fire he had been searching for out of his second-year big since training camp.
“Finally he yelled at me,” Brooks said. “Finally. Been waiting for that, been getting under his skin for about three months. Finally he exploded.”
Was that more of Brooks asking for it from Ighodaro or forcing it out of him?
“I asked to begin with. But…” Brooks said.
It was needed. Williams has struggled for back-to-back games, his first slump across what has been a very consistent season to this point.
Goodwin had nine points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block in 30 minutes. Gillespie added 16 points, six rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block.
Grayson Allen (right knee soreness) did not play, his ninth absence of the year. Seven came via a right quad contusion that took longer than expected to heal, while the eighth was for an illness.
Allen is no stranger to popping up on the injury report with some type of soreness and a questionable tag, which sometimes he will play through and sometimes will not. He plays an ultra-physical style and is constantly taking blows while taking tumbles to the floor. With all that said, he only missed a combined 25 games in his first two Suns seasons prior to this year.
Curry had a major off-night, shooting 3-of-13 for 15 points. The Warriors shot 4-of-16 on shot attempts via offensive rebounds, an area of the margins they failed to capitalize on.