I can’t help but think of how much easier it looked for him before the ankle injury in those three games with lower stakes and far worse opposition to acclimate against. They won’t admit it but that’s what this was, unsuccessfully attempting to figure out the incorporation of Durant on the fly. It was a challenging venture to assimilate so quickly midseason as it was and then his freak ankle injury in pregame warmups really put the Suns in a bind. That’s been a challenge to find for him in the flow of the offense all year. He did not thrive with his usual excellency in that department for the last month and really needed to get an easy look or two to find a rhythm like just about every other player in the league. … He just was toughing it out.”ĭurant’s the best shotmaker in the history of basketball, often defined as unguardable because of his ability to rise up and convert over anyone. “Just watching him, he didn’t have that same pop and he’s just too tough of a guy to admit when he’s feeling something. “I haven’t gotten a medical report on that but I think he is dealing with some soreness,” Williams said. Williams confirmed that was what he was seeing with Booker as far as a potential injury. In addition to that and as previously mentioned, Booker saw an extra two defenders once he penetrated for most of the night, like Durant. Booker got a rest at the start of the second and fourth quarters for the first time this postseason. He has essentially been playing in gear five or above on 40-plus minutes over this whole run but rarely shifted above three on Thursday. Whatever that was, it carried over to Thursday.Ĭreating separation is vital for any high-level scorer and Booker wasn’t able to, especially while trying to generate rim pressure, which Booker was providing in spades all postseason to be the best performer in it. He went sideline-to-sideline for a sprinting steal attempt in the third quarter of the Game 5 loss and was laboring the rest of the way after that. I will point directly at their minute totals as a byproduct of that.īooker was clearly playing through some type of lower-body injury that prevented him from consistently triggering his burst. KAT5tMXHWWīoth of them did not have the energy to really push into the teeth of the defense beyond that initial pressure point. They were really only defending two guys.
The Nuggets were willingly leaving solid shooters on the perimeter, daring the star duo to hit ridiculous shots and for its depleted supporting cast to beat them. The Suns, without Deandre Ayton (rib contusion) and Chris Paul (left groin strain), were always going to require magical performances from Devin Booker and Kevin Durant but it wasn’t discussed enough how much more difficult it would be to find them enough room to do so.ĭenver hyper-loaded its defense to contain space for those guys and was outstanding with its execution. It was deflating to just see them score like that, running down the floor getting easy buckets.” “It was pretty much the whole game,” Suns head coach Monty Williams said. During the last 90 seconds, the crowd got real quiet, sensing their squad was simply overmatched in a 44-26 rout. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 17 of his 21 points in the quarter. They scored 22 of their first 27 points in the paint and ended the last 4:10 on a 23-2 run, scoring on 10 straight possessions.
The first quarter was that from the Nuggets. It was not coming close to bordering on quitting in an embarrassing fashion like that group did.īut oftentimes, the best team in the world at some point in the playoffs will deliver a haymaker to self-anoint itself as such to the onlookers. Phoenix was focused for most of the opening frame.
You know how Katniss Everdeen looked around in the Hunger Games when she rose up out of that tube? Like that. Zero focus, pressing like they were snatched by a giant crane machine and instantly dropped right into Footprint Center with no preparation, looking around the room all befuddled before hearing a whistle blow. Versus Dallas, the Suns were immediately in a haze. Suns fail to show up in elimination Game 6 loss at home to Nuggets
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