Devin Booker posts first career triple-double in Suns Game 1 win over Clippers
Devin Booker #DevinBooker
Devin Booker didn’t let his team lose with Chris Paul being out under the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
Scoring 29 of his game-high 40 points in the second half, Booker posted his first career triple-double in leading the Phoenix Suns to an 120-114 Game 1 win over the Los Angeles Clippers to open the Western Conference finals at Phoenix Suns Arena.
“He just goes out there, plays with a chip on his shoulder, knowing no one giving him nothing,” Suns guard Cameron Payne said, who got the start for Paul. “No one still showing him his love, so he come out there and just trying to prove people wrong every night and that’s big-time for him.”
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A sellout crowd of 16,583 watched Booker grab a career-high 13 rebounds and dish out 11 assists to just two turnovers in posting his first career triple-double in his six NBA seasons, playoffs or regular season.
“He’s a beast and we understand that,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “We’ll go look at the tape and look at the film and just kind of go from there, but he did a good job of attacking. We tried to double team, we tried to blitz, we tried to fire. He took advantage of a lot of it.”
Booker’s dunk with 20 seconds remaining and ensuing emphatic rebound equipped with a scream and flex with 6.5 seconds left sealed victory for second-seeded Phoenix, which led by as many as 10 points with 1:59 left only to see the Clippers shrink its lead to two with 22 seconds left.
“It felt good man,” Booker said. “We wanted to protect home court. That was big for us to come out and secure that one. I don’t know I showed that much emotion through the playoffs that much, but not having Chris out there, being a high-intense game, we wanted that one bad.”
In short, Booker played 44 minutes in leading Phoenix to a franchise record eighth consecutive playoff win without his All-Star backcourt mate in Paul, who the Suns announced Tuesday was in the league’s health and safety protocols.
“I thought he got a little winded in the fourth, and something happened and he got the ball and took off like he wasn’t even tired,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “So I talked to him in huddle and he’s like, ‘Coach, I’m good. I’m not tired.’ And I just felt like we needed him on the floor in those moments, especially not having Chris.”
Paul’s status for Game 2 remains unknown as Williams said he’s still “day-to-day” with the protocols, but the 16-year veteran was part of the postgame celebration as he joined the team on FaceTime, something Williams said the team does when a player is out.
“He was excited, for sure,” Williams said.
The ever demanding Paul also puts Sunday’s win in perspective on FaceTime.
“He was excited, but he was holding up this,” said Suns forward Jae Crowder while holding up one finger. “Finger one. It was one game. We did what we were supposed to do. We held them down and we made plays on both ends of the court, but he was very excited. He had a smile on his face, but he’s eager to get back.”
Payne talked about the difference without Paul was not hearing the point guard talk all game, but the Suns could’ve used him to help them have an easier time closing the game.
“I think the last three minutes of that game, that’s when we felt like, ‘Where the hell is Chris at?” Crowder said. “That’s the point where he’s that guy. He’s that guy to make that play for everybody. He’s that guy to put us in position, and especially with the lead or down, we depend on him to make those plays, especially late in the game. So I think (his absence) was felt more that last 3:30 of the game.”
The fourth-seeded Clippers went on an 8-0 run to cut Phoenix’s 116-106 lead to two with 22 seconds left as Rajon Rondo had five points and assisted Mann’s 3 in the spurt.
“I loved our fight, loved what I saw,” Lue said.
After Williams called a timeout, the Suns scored immediately as Booker shook free for a dunk to make the difference four.
Then Booker rebounded Nicolas Batum’s missed 3 with 6.5 seconds left after Bridges blocked Paul George’s layup on the same possession.
That last rebound set a new career-high for boards for Booker, who grabbed four more than the much taller Ayton.
“All. All,” said Ayton when asked how many rebounds did Booker take away from him.” I think he had like 13, 14. I seen him. It’s like, I didn’t know he was going to grab that many.”
Shooting 15-of-29 from the field, Booker went 3-of-7 from 3 and 7-of-7 from the line.
“I thought when we started playing fast, he started to attack and get to the paint, everything opened up for us and he hit some shots,” Williams said.
The Suns finished with 31 assists, shot 55.1% from the field, scored 54 points in the paint, and connected on 13-of-32 shots from 3 as six players reached double figures.
Ayton finished with 20 points, Bridges went for 14 and Crowder added 13 while Cam Johnson and Payne chipped in 12 and 11 points, respectively.
“We’ve got to find a way to adjust,” George said. “This is a different caliber team than the other two teams we faced. A little bit more guard play. And so we just have to figure out how to counter, which we will.”
The Clippers eliminated Dallas in seven, won four straight to take out the top-seeded Jazz with the last victory coming Friday in Los Angeles, but fell to the Suns, who topped their longest winning streak of the season, which was seven from March 26 to April 7.
The Clippers actually stopped that winning streak with a 113-103 win April 8 Los Angeles, but weren’t able to do it again in the postseason.
George paced the Clippers with 34 points as they were without Kawhi Leonard for a third straight game.
The first-team All-NBA selection has been out with a sprained right knee he suffered in Game 4 of the conference finals against the top-seeded Utah Jazz.
“As much as we wanted this one, I think this was a good feel-out game to see adjustments,” George said. “We’ve been great adjusting, and you know, we’ve been great at playing better as the series goes on.”
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Devin Booker posts first career triple-double in Suns Game 1 win over Clippers