NEW ORLEANS – Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker found himself in esteemed company following another 52-point masterpiece against the New Orleans Pelicans in their 124-111 victory on April 1.
He joined legend Wilt Chamberlain in being the only players to score at least 50 points against the same National Basketball Association (NBA) team three times in a row, as the visiting Suns tightened the Western Conference play-off race.
“Any time you get named with Wilt, and it’s happened a few times in my career... you know you did something special,” said Booker, who finished with eight three-pointers and nine assists.
His scoring spree against New Orleans had started in December 2022, when he amassed 58 points in a 118-114 victory at the Footprint Centre. On Jan 19, he also racked up 52 points in a 123-109 win over the Pelicans on the road.
When asked what was it about playing at the King Smoothie Centre that gives him an extra edge, Booker said “the crib is close”.
“Shout-out to my family in the house. My high school, Moss Point in Mississippi, it’s about an hour and a half, an hour and 45 away, so I have a lot of family here,” he added.
“They’ve been showing up and showing out since my rookie year. Over 50 to 100 people here, so you always have to put on something special for them.”
Zion Williamson led the New Orleans scoring with 30 points, with Trey Murphy adding 21. Jusuf Nurkic bagged 19 points and 19 rebounds for the Suns, while Kevin Durant registered 20 points.
Durant said it was like deja vu as he watched Booker deliver another blockbuster.
“You look up, he’s got 20 points in the first quarter,” he said. “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, lay-ups, going through pull-ups. That’s the sign of an otherworldly scorer when you can do it in the flow of the offence like that.”
Phoenix coach Frank Vogel praised the 27-year-old Booker’s devastating display, but added that their challenge is to “string together two in a row of those types of performance and then three in a row and keep it going”.
With the victory, the seventh-placed Suns (44-31) boosted their hopes of displacing the sixth-placed Pelicans (45-30) and snatching an automatic play-off berth. Both sides meet again in Phoenix on April 7.
The result also meant that the Minnesota Timberwolves have joined the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder in clinching a play-off spot.
Elsewhere, Jayson Tatum and Sam Hauser both scored 25 points as the Boston Celtics, who had already secured top spot in the Eastern Conference, romped past the Charlotte Hornets 118-104 in North Carolina.
Hauser’s 25-point contribution off the bench included seven three-pointers, while starters Kristaps Porzingis (20), Derrick White (19) and Al Horford (15) also made double figures.
Tatum said the victory was cause for encouragement as the play-offs loom with less than a fortnight of the regular season remaining.
“Last year, we were so antsy to get back to the finals, that we had a few bad losses in the last few weeks of the season,” Tatum said. “We may have taken some things for granted.
“This year, we’ve done a great job of not skipping steps and respecting every game, every day, trying to get better – as cliche as that sounds.”
Meanwhile, the Indiana Pacers boosted their hopes of locking an automatic play-off berth with a 133-111 rout of the visiting Brooklyn Nets.
Tyrese Haliburton led the way with 27 points while Jalen Smith had 17 points off the bench as the Pacers improved to 43-33 to remain sixth in the East, just ahead of seventh-placed Miami (41-33). The Nets fell to 29-47. AFP, REUTERS
