Devin Booker, Suns offense continues to struggle against Thunder

On By Littum

The shorthanded Phoenix Suns are going to be stuck in the mud until Devin Booker can lift them out of it, and he wasn’t able to do that in Friday’s 99-83 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Without Grayson Allen (right hamstring soreness), Bradley Beal (left calf) and Kevin Durant (left calf) again, the Suns turned in a woeful offensive performance.

Booker had 12 points (2-for-10) with four assists and four turnovers. He is now shooting 28-for-68 (41.2%) in the four games Durant has missed.

The distance, even with Beal back, is completely different without Durant. Booker hasn’t been able to adjust effectively enough to find his proper pace, and even with all the extra bodies sent his way, we’ve seen him still thrive through this in the past.

What would help him tremendously is the supporting cast who make shots to create some relief for him to find his scoring pocket, but this is now three out of the last four games where that hasn’t happened. The Suns were 9-for-37 (24.3%) from 3 with 17 assists and 14 turnovers.

Booker has made a living being an elite shot maker regardless of difficulty, and he hasn’t been at the level he needs to be to produce against these coverages. And he will always play the right way, as he has said since these defenses came to him. So his teammates have to start converting because the ball won’t stop coming. One of those two parts of the equation will have to change, or that’s how it will continue to look until Durant returns.

Thunder cruises past the Suns

Phoenix (9-4) had a terrible first quarter, trailing 29-12, something hard to believe when you consider it only turned the ball over once against a productive defense in that regard. The Suns were 1-of-11 from 3, with all 10 of those misses coming from five apiece for Ryan Dunn and Tyus Jones.

As teams have done since Durant was hurt, Booker sees helpers creeping closer and closer in his direction. OKC took it to the point where at any point in the half court, when Booker sped himself up, the other guy was ready to swarm. He did what he had to, move the ball for an open shot, but those shots weren’t falling.

On top of that, Booker needed a hot start to find his scoring touch early, but he was 0-for-6 in the opening period. OKC’s Luguentz Dort has always been one of the best perimeter defenders on Booker the past few years, and the efforts of Dort plus a few other great Thunder defenders stifled Booker.

Booker didn’t score until the third quarter. He hadn’t had a scoreless first half in 295 games and five seasons since December 23, 2019, per Stathead.

Expectations for this Suns contest were very low without key players against the West’s best and a squad on pace to be an all-time regular defense, but Booker needs to find his star form quickly. This conference doesn’t rest for anyone, and a couple of down weeks could really be the difference between play-in and an automatic playoff berth if promising starts for teams like the Grizzlies, Lakers, Kings, Rockets and Warriors are maintained.

OKC (11-2) wasn’t great in this game, allowing the Suns to be down just a dozen at the half despite shooting 26.8%. It eventually got enough success off Suns misses to push its lead up to 20 midway through the third quarter.

The Thunder had no centers and were missing Isaiah Hartenstein (left hand fracture), Chet Holmgren (right hip fracture) and Jaylin Williams (right hamstring strain). Alex Caruso (right hip soreness) has spent some time as their small-ball 5, but he was also out. Phoenix tried to take advantage of Jusuf Nurkic, and he shot 0-for-7 and 4-for-8 from the foul line.

Nurkic is now 1-of-18 in his last three games. When adding qualifications to Stathead’s span finder dating back to the 1975-76 season, filtering in a three-game stretch for a center who attempted at least 15 shots in that span, Nurkic’s 5.6% field goal percentage is the worst ever. Two centers previously shot 6.3% (1-of-16). Nurkic has been roughing it through a left ankle problem, but that’s staggering ineffectiveness.

This loss in NBA Cup play dropped the Suns to a 1-1 record. They will most likely need to be perfect from here in their last two games to qualify for the knockout stages.