Devin Booker did it again, “it” meaning 50 points or more against the New Orleans Pelicans. Booker's performance was downright historic. The Phoenix Suns superstar is the first NBA player to score at least 50 points in three consecutive games against the same opponent since Wilt Chamberlain back in the 1960s. Willie Green credited Booker after the game but could only say the home team played ‘soft' in the latest loss.
And it was a huge loss at home. The Pelicans were within reach of a dream fourth-seeded scenario at the end of March. They are in a nightmare NBA Play-In Tournament battle on April 2. Zion Williamson's All-NBA case was bolstered with 30 points and five assists on 10-20 shooting from the field and 10-13 from the free throw line.
It's a fine stat line from the two-time All-Star but Green was not impressed with the Pelicans.
“(Booker) hit some shots that we gave him. He hit some tough shots. But we have to do better. There is no excuse to get 50 put on us twice,” Green groaned. “Our mentality coming out, especially in the first quarter because in both games it's been the first half he has really done some damage against us, quite frankly we were soft in guarding him. We had a ‘soft' mentality when it came to being physical with him. He's a great player. You cannot allow him to be comfortable and that's what we did tonight.”
Saying the Pelicans ‘did' anything is a stretch. Booker went 8-9 on first-quarter three-pointers for 24 points and Phoenix never let up. The Pelicans had 28 first-quarter points to 46 for the Suns. Booker finished with 52 points on 28 shots. New Orleans needed 46 shots to go into halftime with 54 points.
Somehow, the Pelicans were within nine just 20 seconds into the fourth quarter. New Orleans then held Kevin Durant to 1-7 from the field in the final frame. Booker only had two layups and a missed three-pointer in the last 12 minutes. Bradley Beal was 2-3. The visitors only made five shots in the fourth. Still, the home team lost by 13.
Finishing off possessions in the paint was an issue on both ends. The Suns won the rebounding battle (49-37) convincingly and the Pelicans missed too many shots (23-49) from within in the paint. The home team won the points in the paint battle (60-42) but let too many chances go by the wayside. Williamson grabbed a mere two rebounds in 37 minutes and was almost 10% below his season field goal average on a paint-heavy shot diet.
For comparison, Kevin Durant (20 points, seven rebounds) and Bradley Beal (13 points, 9 rebounds) were both efficient playing off of Booker and active on the boards. Phoenix had four offensive rebounds in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter and fans started hitting the exits. Factor in the three-point math, the Suns made seven more and took 20 more shots from beyond the arc, and the Pelicans come up short 99% of the time in this type of game.
“(The small ball lineup) has to do a better job of finishing defensive possessions so when we are small, or big it does not matter,” Green said. “They out-rebounded us and that's unacceptable. We have to have a tougher mentality.”
Pelicans face Booker's Suns again soon
New Orleans had a shot to win the game though, down just seven with 2:48 to play following a CJ McCollum three-pointer. They'll get a chance to steal at least one game in the regular season series on April 7. Hopefully, the Pelicans fare better than they did down the stretch versus the Suns at home.
Durant missed a three-pointer following McCollum's shot but Booker got the offensive rebound. The Suns did not score but precious seconds ran off the clock. McCollum missed a floater on the next trip down and then scrambled for an ultimately unsuccessful tip-in follow-up. It left him out of position, Jusuf Nurkic got the rebound, and Booker hit a layup for his 50th point of the night at the 2:00 mark.
The Suns hit layups while Williamson went to the free-throw line a few times to wind down the game. The Pelicans and Suns will see each other soon in another pivotal NBA Playoffs caliber matchup. It won't quite be the homecoming for Booker though, who grew up a short drive away from the Smoothie King Center. He has three 50-point games and three are against New Orleans, who cannot allow a fourth.
Booker went into detail after the latest victory about the meaning and emotions of playing in front of friendly, familiar faces when in New Orleans.
“It means a whole lot,” the Moss Point, Mississippi native explained. “My family was in attendance for two of them. Any time you get named for something Wilt did, it’s happened very few times in my career, you know you did something special.”
The Pelicans had a chance to do something special this season by finishing in a top-six seed. Now New Orleans is mired in the same old wars, singing the same old songs. An All-Star is hurt (Brandon Ingram), CJ McCollum is hitting a ceiling as the second option against the better teams, and Williamson can only do so much with a supporting cast that has cooled off from beyond the arc.
The Pelicans can ill-afford to miss threes and not get rebounds when All-NBA talents like Booker are bombing away. The team is 3-4 over the last seven games and only McCollum is shooting above 40% from three-point range. Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Jose Alvarado, Naji Marshall, Dyson Daniels, and Matt Ryan are below league average over that same span.
Identifying the problem this late in the season is the first step, but it's a confounding issue according to Green.
“I can't put my finger on exactly what it was but we will definitely look at it,” Green stated. “We'll look at the film and try to make some corrections.”
Correcting the effort is what matters most. Another “soft mentality” performance like the last loss will have the Pelicans likely facing off against LeBron James and/or Stephen Curry in a possible elimination game. That would be a very risky gamble considering the progress these Pelicans seemed to make throughout the regular season. Fifty wins might be out of reach now, but keeping opponents from scoring 50 points and finishing above the NBA Play-In Tournament line is far more important.
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