By Doug Haller
5h ago
32
PHOENIX — Devin Booker started getting his footing right just as he passed half-court Tuesday night. The Suns guard looked to his left and saw teammate Kevin Durant hustling to try and fill the lane. Booker noticed Eric Gordon get into defensive position but the Clippers guard held back a little too much inside the 3-point arc. Booker planted and fired.
Throughout this Western Conference first-round playoffs series, those who know Booker best have tried to describe his performance. Or rather his elevation. Booker is a strange case, viewed nationally as one of the game’s great talents, but always with a foot on the line. Elite, just not elite-elite.
Before Game 3 in Los Angeles, Phoenix coach Monty Williams struggled to find the right word to describe Booker’s aggressiveness. He wondered if one existed. The next day reserve guard Landry Shamet said words like “special” and “incredible” really don’t do Booker justice. “He’s just driving us now,’’ he said.
And so Booker on Tuesday night pulled up in the third quarter of Game 5, keeping his right hand held high, knowing the outcome before everyone else in the building, the best feeling a shooter can have. The 3 ignited a sold-out Footprint Center, the exclamation point of Booker’s jaw-dropping 25-point third quarter and the lasting image of a 136-130 win that closed out this series.
“It was spiritual,” Durant said of Booker’s explosion. “I don’t scream too much in the games no more as I’ve gotten older but when he hit that 3 at the top of the key, I felt the energy and I know everybody in our crowd felt it. We feed off his aggression.”
While there’s an argument to be made for Miami’s Jimmy Butler, Booker has been the best player in these playoffs. On Tuesday night, he had 47 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists. He held the Suns together during a slow start. He outscored the Clippers 25-24 in the third quarter. And he helped hold off a final Los Angeles surge.
“There were times where he was taking what the defense gave him and there were times where he just went and it did not matter,” Williams said.
Through five games, Booker is averaging a postseason-high 37.2 points (Butler’s averaging 36.5) to go along with 5.0 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 2.6 steals. He’s shooting 60.2 percent from the field, 46.7 from 3 and 85.7 from the foul line. Asked to describe Booker’s first-round performance, forward Josh Okogie sat at his locker and said simply: “Indescribable.”
This was supposed to be Durant’s role. Sort of. When the Suns acquired the 13-time All-Star in February, everyone assumed he would lead the way during the playoffs. That he would become the alpha and Booker would play off him. Instead, it’s been the reverse. While Durant has played aggressively at times, Booker, a car collector, has kept the accelerator floored.
He hasn’t eased into this. He hasn’t picked his spots. “He’s feeling good when the jump ball comes,” point guard Chris Paul said. Booker described Tuesday’s contest, in which he shot 19 of 27 from the field, as a feeling-out process. The Suns had discussed not wanting to return to Los Angeles for Game 6, but it took a while for that urgency to translate onto the court.
The Clippers outplayed the Suns in the first half, a troubling habit that could cost Phoenix in the next round against top-seed Denver. Russell Westbrook hit a free throw to give LA a 71-61 lead, its biggest of the game. But then Booker hit a floater in the lane. After a Clippers offensive foul, Suns big man Deandre Ayton missed a short fadeaway. Booker grabbed the rebound and flipped it back to Ayton before falling out of bounds. In a flash, Booker ran back onto the court, stationing himself in the corner. Ayton underhanded an easy pass. Booker nailed the 3.
On the Phoenix bench, reserve Terrence Ross shook his head in disbelief.
“Ever since KD got here, the expectation is different,” said Ayton, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds. “It’s a completely different Book. The approach, the consistency and just competing on both ends of the floor has, like, risen to another level.”
Booker dribbled a difficult path to get here. His 2015 arrival, as the the No. 13 pick of the NBA draft, coincided with dark times. In rebuild-mode coming off the Steve Nash glory years, the Suns averaged 21.8 wins over Booker’s first four seasons. They had four head coaches in five years. Booker fought for respect, not backing down from confrontation, forcing his way. Always wanting more. He learned from mistakes.
After having his shot blocked in the final seconds of a close loss to Boston, Booker, then a rookie, texted then-coach Earl Watson and told him it’d never happen again. In 2019, he sent a late-night text to Williams, then in his first season in Phoenix, telling the coach that he wanted to guard the opponent’s star player the next evening. At the time, Booker wasn’t known as a strong defender. He just wanted the challenge.
“That spoke volumes to me,” Williams said.
It hasn’t stopped. The Suns are 12-1 with Durant in the lineup. They’ve looked sharp and they’ve looked vulnerable, often in the same game. Durant has played well (he’s averaging a “quiet” 28.4 points), Paul has had moments, but Booker has been the headliner. This has been his postseason stage.
“I don’t take any chance to do something special for granted,” he said. “(Going) from a young team to an established team now is just something totally different, but I wouldn’t change my journey for anybody else’s. There’s not many young players in the league that just get to get thrown into the fire and play through mistakes and learn through mistakes.
“It was tough taking them ‘L’s’ early on, but I think I got to develop my game. And I had an organization that believed in me. I just took it from there.”
