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Oh, how fast the landscape of the NBA Playoffs can change. According to a report from ESPN's Brian Windhorst Thursday, Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker could miss 2-3 weeks with a Grade 1 right hamstring strain. Booker suffered the injury in the Suns' game 2 loss to New Orleans Pelicans after scoring 31 points in the first half.
Suddenly, this round 1 series went from a quick romp to a dogfight.
While Devin Booker made the trip to New Orleans for games 3 and 4, Booker will not play in those games. The series against the Pelicans is tied at one game each. The Suns will likely need to find those last three wins without their star.
We've already covered which players will need to step up the rest of the series, but what about as a team? For the Suns to survive a round 1 threat and potentially a round 2 battle with the Utah Jazz or Dallas Mavericks, they need to protect the rim.
2 Ways the Suns Stay Afloat Without Devin Booker
1. DeAndre Ayton's time to wake up
Deandre Ayton has to start playing like the No. 1 overall pick again, or the Suns could go home early. Through two games against the Pelicans, Jonas Valanciunas has eaten him alive through physicality. Ayton hasn't been boxing out and hasn't been forceful in the paint. That has to change.
Although Ayton's game revolves around high-ball screens and movement, it's time for him to be an old-school center. Valanciunas had 13 rebounds in game 2, to Ayton's 9. Jae Crowder had 6 in his 27 minutes of action.
Those numbers won't be acceptable without Booker. Suns players Landry Shamet and Cam Johnson will likely be the two players receiving a significant uptick in minutes in games 3 and 4, and they're both good shooters from range. Ayton and Crowder need to be active around the rim and picking up loose balls to get the Suns' shooters clean looks.
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Valanciunas had 25 rebounds in game 1. 13 of those were offensive. New Orleans had 25 offensive rebounds as a team while Phoenix had 35 rebounds total. The Suns won't win another game in this series with numbers like that.
The good news for Suns fans is that they have the likely NBA Coach of the Year scheming up the rest of the series. Monty Williams has to know that the way his bigs have played in the first two games isn't acceptable, and adaptation has to be coming.
2. CP3 is still there
If there's anyone in the NBA that can hold things down while waiting for a key player to return, it's Chris Paul. Phoenix fans panicking after the news of Booker's injury can rest assured that Paul is the perfect player to keep a team afloat in this situation.
CP3 is one of the reasons why this situation isn't more dire. He engineered a massive push to put game 1 on ice on Sunday, scoring 17-of-19 Suns points in the fourth quarter.
Without Booker, Paul will be the primary ball-handler every single Suns possession when he's on the floor. Frankly, in high leverage situations, that's whose hands you want the ball in anyways. Paul has the highest basketball IQ on the court at all times, and he can make the smart play when games get close at the end.
If the Suns escape the series with New Orleans in five or six games, Paul could keep them in a potential series with Utah or Dallas. If Booker could comeback midway through a Western Conference Semi-Finals series tied at two games a piece, Phoenix will be in great shape at another push toward the NBA Finals.
