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Point Book Was Key in Putting The Suns On His Back in Game 2

© Mark J. Rebilas- USA TODAY Sports

Devin. Armani. Booker. That’s it that’s the article.

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On a serious note, Devin Booker had one of his best playoff performances of an already legendary career. His ability to get to his spots at will last night as well as the sense of urgency he played with went a long way for the team in the 123-109 win on Tuesday night.

Booker finished with 38 points and 9 assists on 64% shooting and 57% from three. The Clippers continued to play drop coverage with Zubac in the game and Booker was slicing it every chance he got.

The Clippers have made it a priority to focus a lot of their attention on Kevin Durant, especially in post/high pick-and-roll action. However, this being the case, that leaves a lot of space and one-on-one opportunities for Booker to cook.

Durant after the game talked about Booker’s performance overall and how the all-star player sees the floor similarly to a point-guard that’s penetrating drives and kick-offs to the corner and elbows all around the court.

“I feel like he’s an oversized point guard, to be honest,” Durant said. “Like, a guy that can initiate, make plays for others, quickly getting to the rim, either hand. He can do pretty much everything at that point guard position. So when he got it, we played a little faster.”

This goes with his team-high 9 assists in the game. The more Booker started to figure out what the Clippers were doing on defense with Zubac dropping, the more that called for Ty Lue to adjust and have Zubac play a little more up.

The thing with Booker is that his foot speed is one of the best in the game and Zubac’s foot speed isn’t as fast. This caused a lot of help defense to occur for the Clippers and when he would drive in the paint, that would leave Torrey Craig open a lot in the corner and wing.

Monty Williams alluded to Booker’s play last night as well and he thought that the overall spacing was great which allowed Booker to get to his spots and attack at will.

Another keynote that allowed Booker to penetrate like this, was for him and Durant to have the ball in their hands more often than usual. There were times when Booker was playing the point-guard role which allowed Chris Paul to play more off-ball.

When Booker initiated the offense, it allowed for the offense to be more aggressive especially with the Clippers continuing to play a lot of drop coverage. This helped a lot with the tempo of the game that was missing here and there in Game 1.

That was another thing that Williams alluded to after the game and why this little adjustment helped the flow of the offense take off starting in the second quarter.

“I thought Chris did a really good job of just putting the ball in Book’s hands and saying, ‘You go,’” Williams said. “So Book scores in a number of ways, and when he’s going like that, I think the team feeds off of his high-level play.”

Booker after the game talked about the little defensive packages that he was starting to figure out and from that point forward, it allowed for the all-star guard to attack, attack, and attack some more.

“It’s that time of year,” Booker said. “Everything counts. I think with the talent that we have on this team, spacing is a big thing. So just trying to give Kev space, trying to give CP space, just putting everybody in the best position to succeed.”

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Booker’s performance was the difference in the series when a team has a secondary star player that can get you thirty and operate as a versatile guard. With Paul George likely out of this series, this could be the small difference in why the Suns may have a chance to win this series.

Adjustments will obviously be made by Ty Lue and his staff. This makes Game 3 and this series, in general, a masterpiece that everyone will be tuned in to watch.

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