Devin Booker was never able to get in a groove mentally
DeAndre Ayton having to sit most of the second-half in foul trouble was not ideal for the Phoenix Suns, but neither was Devin Booker having one of his worst shooting nights of the season. Booker went 3-14 from the floor and scored just 10 points, just a game after he scored 31 points on 12-25 from the floor, 7-12 from three-point range.
This was Booker’s Lowest scoring output of these playoffs and he just looked mentally out of it after going 2-11 from the floor in the first-half. In the third quarter, the Suns did pull within four points at one point after trailing by 15 points at the half, but then Milwaukee opened up their lead to nearly 20 points and Devin Booker’s body language said it all.
With just under a minute left in the third quarter, head coach Monty Williams pulled Booker out of the game and he sat for the entire fourth quarter as the Bucks put the finishing touches on a dominant win. After the game, Williams was asked about his decision to pull Devin Booker out of the game and what his message was to him on the sideline.
“Just talking to him about the game, the kind of force we have to play with. Just normal stuff,” said Monty Williams. “This is one of those games that you typically, in NBA speak, say flush it. But you can’t in the Finals.”
Later on in his postgame press conference, the Suns’ head coach was once again asked about Devin Booker’s struggles and was asked about what exactly was frustrating the Suns’ shooting guard out there on the court.
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“Probably a bunch of everything,” stated Williams. “Their aggression, their defense. They keyed on him. He’s been in this situation before, as you guys alluded to. When you get to the Finals, it means you’ve been in a number of situations. So this is nothing new to us anymore. He’ll bounce back.”
Phoenix will definitely need Devin Booker to “bounce back” as head coach Monty Williams alluded to because he has been their catalyst on offense all postseason long. His ability to score in bunches possession after possession has been so valuable for the Suns and if he has another off night in Game 4, then this puts a lot more pressure on guys like Chris Paul, Mikal Bridges and Cameron Payne to pick up a lot of the scoring load, something they are not always able to do.
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Chris Paul is the future Hall-of-Famer on the Phoenix Suns, but Devin Booker is their MVP. Everybody has bad nights and off shooting nights, but this was a very weird game for Booker. He just seemed mentally checked out in that third quarter of Game 3’s loss, which resulted in the Suns not really being able to put up a solid fight.
As mentioned before, games like this are going to happen and it is better that Booker was able to get a game like this out now before potentially a big Game 6 or 7 in this series, should the NBA Finals be extended that long! There is still a lot of basketball to be played and Booker has plenty of chances to get back to being himself, but Milwaukee has to be pleased with the way they defended the Suns’ young guard Sunday night.
