This late in the NBA regular season, every game is important. In the Western Conference, where things are tight and teams are jockeying for seeding, racking up wins is imperative for the Phoenix Suns.
In a tie with the Sacramento Kings entering play on Monday night, the Suns were set to face off against one of the teams that are ahead of them in the standings; the New Orleans Pelicans. Knowing how important of a game it was, and in front of a ton of friends and family, Devin Booker got his team off to a hot start.
Booker poured in 24 points in the first quarter, helping stake Phoenix to a double-digit lead. He finished the first half with 37 as the Suns held a comfortable 20-point lead. They used that to coast to a 124-111 victory, moving within a game of the Pelicans in the standings and clinching the season-series tiebreaker.
It was a masterful performance by Booker, who tied some impressive NBA history by scoring 52 points. For the third straight game against the Pelicans, he scored at least 50, tying a record set by Wilt Chamberlain.
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It was a performance that left his teammate, Kevin Durant, in awe. Durant has had some incredible scoring nights of his own, but he has witnessed the last two performances Booker has had against New Orleans and couldn’t help but praise him after the game.
“It was like déjà vu as it was happening,” he said. “You look up, he’s got 20 points in the first quarter. Then what I loved about it, everything was in the flow of the game from the start. Pin downs, catch-and-shoots, cuts to the rim, layups, going through pull-ups. That’s the sign of an otherworldly scorer when you can do it in the flow of the offense like that.”
Durant chipped in 20 points along with seven rebounds, three assists and two steals in 41 minutes as he took a backseat to Booker on Monday evening. What made Booker’s performance all the more impressive was that he still handed out nine assists, as he was doing whatever he wanted against the Pelicans, who had zero answers for him on the court.
A true three-level scorer, Booker can fill it up as quickly and efficiently as anyone in the NBA. He could not have picked a better time to go off than Monday night, as the Suns needed a victory after losing on Friday night to the Oklahoma City Thunder by 25.
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