Suns beat Nuggets, clinches top seed
Devin Booker (1) (left) driving to the basket against Aaron Gordon (50) (right) in Nugget’s home court.
On March 24, the Phoenix Suns defeated the Denver Nuggets to clinch the first seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
The Suns were able to secure the first seed behind Devin Booker’s season-high 49 points on 25 shots while shooting 64% for the night.
Booker made key shots inside the paint, behind the arc (40%), and crucial jump shots that eventually brought the Suns back into the game after trailing to the Nuggets until the fourth quarter.
Along with Booker’s 49 points and 10 assists performance, he had three steals with two of them on Nuggets’ center Nikola Jokic. This showed Booker’s defensive ability when it matters the most to help his team win
28 points from Jokic, rookie Bones Hyland (23), and Aaron Gordon (21) were factors to the 59% of shooting, but the Suns shooting 60% overcame the back-in-forth game.
With Booker’s performance against the Nuggets, Chris Paul returned early from a broken right wrist, which he suffered since the All-Star break in February.
“I've been playing pickup, 3-on-3, 2-on-2, but 5-on-5 is different, especially when your first game back is in Denver,” Paul said after the win over Nuggets by recording a double-double with 17 points and 13 assists.
Mikal Bridges (22), Deandre Ayton (16), and Jae Crowder (12) all contributed to the Suns’ win with Bridges sealing the game with a fade-away jumper in the fourth quarter. The score at that time was 134-125 with two minutes left in the game.
The final score is 140-130 and the Suns have locked the first seed with a 60-14 record in the Western Conference, which the Suns are 8.5 games in front of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Following the game and Booker’s 49 points, NBA analysts like Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless would discuss the possibility of Booker belonging to the MVP race.
The MVP race is currently listed with Joel Embiid, Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. This MVP race with Booker included could be a reality depending on if he could continue to outperform other talented players this season.
If Booker doesn’t get the MVP considerations, then he could still feel happy with the Suns coming into the playoffs with home-court advantage as the NBA season comes to an end soon.
