Devin Booker's Importance To Suns Showing In Playoff Series Against Pelicans

Phoenix Suns All-Star Devin Booker has missed his team’s last two playoff games against the New Orleans Pelicans due to a hamstring injury and his absence has casted doubt on the Suns’ chances of advancing to the NBA Finals.

Winning 64 games in a season is no small feat in the NBA and the Phoenix Suns did just that during the 2021-22 season, setting a new franchise-record for wins in a single season.

Nobody expected Phoenix to have trouble with the New Orleans Pelicans in their first-round playoff matchup, but through four games, these two teams are tied at 2-2 and this has suddenly become a Best-of-3 series.

The best team in the NBA this year has struggled against a team that barely made the playoffs and in fact, was the last team into the Western Conference playoffs.

The Pelicans’ size and physical nature of play has greatly impacted this series so far, as first-year head coach Willie Green has done an excellent job of setting New Orleans up for success against his former team, but the key difference in this series right now is that the Suns are without Devin Booker.

In Game 2, Booker appeared to injure his left hamstring and it was later revealed that the Suns’ All-Star had suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain that could keep him out at least two weeks.

During the regular season, Devin Booker had averaged 26.8 points per game and he was playing really well against the Pelicans before getting injured, as he scored 25 points in Game 1 and had 31 points at the time of his injury in Game 2.

They may have come away with a slim three-point victory in Game 3 against New Orleans, but Phoenix got knocked out by the Pelicans in Game 4 on Sunday, losing 118-103 on the road in a game that the Suns could never get going offensively.

The Pelicans controlled this game all night long and for the first-time in forever, the Phoenix Suns looked very vulnerable, especially on the offensive-end of the floor.

It is very clear to see that the Suns need Devin Booker and while they have won games before without Booker, he is the key to them winning a championship.

Offensively, the Suns have nobody that can replicate Devin Booker’s scoring production and now, things have become a whole lot easier defensively for the Pelicans since they can zero-in on containing Chris Paul.

In Game 4 on Sunday, Paul finished with just 4 points and 11 assists, as New Orleans swarmed him every time he touched the ball, forcing the future Hall-of-Fame point guard to give the ball up and put the game in the hands of Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson and Deandre Ayton.

Jose Alvarado finally got Chris Paul slippin' 🍪 pic.twitter.com/zJBV9mEGis

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 25, 2022

Physicality has been brought each and every game by the Pelicans in this series and with no security blanket to lean on offensively, Phoenix’s offense has been very quiet the last two games in New Orleans.

Moving forward in this series, Devin Booker’s availability will continue to be questioned, but his status continues to remain very unclear given the nature of hamstring injuries and how long they can take to fully heal.

“We can't worry about that,” Suns’ head coach Monty Williams said in response to being asked about Booker being ready for the remainder of this series. “The guys who are on the floor, we just did it the other day. We played harder. We didn't shoot the 3-ball well and we won the game… We can't worry about whether Book comes back. Obviously, we need Book back, but that's not why we lost the game. They played much harder than we did.”

Rebounding has been a big problem for Phoenix in this series, as the Pelicans have outrebounded them 191-142, including 65-34 on the offensive-glass, but the third-quarter has been a huge swing in momentum for the Pelicans, as New Orleans has outscored Phoenix 137-93 in the third through four games.

Having Devin Booker on the floor does not necessarily help the Suns in terms of rebounding and keeping the Pelicans out of the paint offensively, but his presence definitely makes a difference in the second-half.

The Suns desperately need Devin Booker on the floor if they are to be a championship contender this season and without him, they could very well face a scenario where they are playing to keep their season alive in a potential Game 7 against the Pelicans.

Others need to step up in the absence of Booker for Phoenix to retake the lead in this series heading into Tuesday’s Game 5 and Chris Paul knows this.

“That's on me,” Paul said after Sunday’s loss. “I'll be better Game 5, got to be. We'll look at the film, figure it out and be better next game.”

The Phoenix Suns will host the New Orleans Pelicans in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series on Tuesday night in Phoenix. Devin Booker’s status for this game continues to be very doubtful as of Monday afternoon. 

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