Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal in the infirmary, many of the Suns' offensive hopes were going through Devin Booker in Oklahoma City. As well as in the hands and centimeters of Jusuf Nurkic, to take advantage of the size advantage that almost every team will have, for a while, against a Thunder team in “small ball” mode due to injuries.
Except that Oklahoma City's defense was perfect in this Phoenix reception, stifling and well organized from start to finish, and the back therefore had a bad evening, as did the pivot.
His statistics line only confirms the images: 12 points at 2/10 on the shoot, no 3-point attempts, and 4 lost balls. We can add that he did not score a single point at the break and will score six points in the last quarter, once the match is over, all with free throws…
Devin Booker even took out his nerves on the main person responsible for his bad match, Lu Dort. “We were out of bounds, he kept holding me, so I got rid of him”he says after pushing the back of the Thunder, who was glued to the double Olympic champion's coattails.
“He has an incredible engine in terms of desire, relentlessness and physical profile. His physique, his power, his speed at this level are assets”, rejoices Mark Daigneault. “Thank God I don’t have to face him night after night like the other teams”adds Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Devin Booker didn't want to force things
Lu Dort did not operate alone, however. The entire defense was organized not to leave the slightest space to Devin Booker and he often had a second defender on his back. But even during the rare one-on-one sequences, when he managed to eliminate his direct opponent, help appeared very quickly.
“They put two players on him almost all the time. The attention was huge on him. He was good at trusting his teammates, at passing.”, commented Mike Budenholzer who, like his players, regretted the external clumsiness (9/37 at 3-pts) on the rare open shots obtained.
There remains one question for the back of the Suns: why not have forced the lock? Trying to break this hold with shots, certainly difficult, but which, if they had returned, would have given Phoenix some breathing space? “I’m not into this thing of trying to score despite a two or three take”he replies. “I left that to my younger years. »
