Devin Booker ties playoff career high with 47 as Suns advance to face Nuggets in semifinals

Kevin Durant’s bottom was a little sore after taking a hard fall on a foul by Russell Westbrook.

No worries.

Devin Booker most definitely got this.

Booker continued to cook the Clippers in going for 47 points to tie a playoff career-high with 25 coming in the third quarter of Phoenix’s 136-130 Game 5 closeout victory Tuesday, to take the Western Conference first-round series, 4-1.

“It was spiritual." said Kevin Durant about Booker's 25-point quarter "I don’t scream too much in the games no more as I got older, but when he hit that three at the top of the key, I felt the energy. I know everyone in our crowd felt it. We feed off his aggression – not just on the team – Suns fans watching on TV, Suns fans in the arena. His impact and his presence just means a lot to us, that was incredible to see and be a part of.”

The fourth-seeded Suns will begin their conference semifinals series Saturday at Denver against the Nuggets, the No. 1 seed in the West.

Outscoring the Clippers by himself in the third, 25-24, Booker had a stretch in which he scored 14 of Phoenix’s 25 points in the final 4:34 of the quarter.

"It damn sure looked like it," Suns point guard Chris Paul about Booker outscoring the Clippers in the third. "I was out at the end of the third and I was like, man, that's tough. Some of the shots he was making, but when you're in the playoffs, this is what you train for. This is what everything is for so when you get going like that, you just want to play."

Denver won Game 5 over Minnesota, 112-109, as Anthony Edwards missed a 3 at the buzzer.

The Suns appeared to be heading to a comfortable closeout win, especially after Booker’s explosive third, but the Clippers cut a 20-point Suns lead early in the fourth down to two twice within the last two minutes that had a sellout crowd of 17,071 at Footprint Center standing in near silence.

"I think it's a good lesson for us moving forward," Booker said. "Don't play with your food. Finish out as strong as you can. Keep playing all the way until the whistle blows."

Nicolas Batum had a chance to give the Clippers the lead, but missed a 3 with 1:18 left.

Then after the Suns turned the ball over, Josh Okogie forced a turnover on Norman Powell, Chris Paul retrieved the ball and found Durant for a transition layup to give Phoenix a 134-130 lead with 58.8 seconds.

"I had great body position," Okogie said. "I've been guarding him all series so I kind of know his tendencies, what move he's trying to do and he got to the free throw line two times before that. So I kind of knew where he was trying to go to."

Then the Clippers came out of the timeout and Terance Mann was unable to handle a pass from Westbrook in the corner for a look at a 3.

Durant wound up drawing a foul on Powell and hit two free throws to make the final difference six with 31.3 seconds remaining.

"We knew it was going to be like that in a close out game and to be able to make enough plays down the stretch," Suns coach Monty Williams said.

Durant finished with 31 points with only six in the fourth as he took just two shots in the quarter, making both.

"They was playing the exact same way they were playing the whole series," Durant said. "Denying me out, not leaving my body when I am spacing out. We opened up a lot of stuff there in the second half. In the fourth quarter we got stops when we needed to. We was able to finish it off. ”

Before that wacky finish, Booker put on a show in the third.

With the game tied at 86-86 in the third, Booker hit a jumper and back-to-back 3s for a personal 8-0 burst to break the tie and force Clippers' coach Ty Lue to call a timeout with 3:44 left in the third.

"Booker was tough all series,' said Lue as Booker averaged 37.2 points on 60.2% shooting (46.7% from 3) in this series. "We couldn’t stop him. We had no answer for him. We tried blitz, we couldn’t get him blitzes. We tried to fire and we couldn’t get our fires. He’s really elusive. He’s quick and dribbles around, it’s just tough for us."

After his first 3 bounced around the rim and in, Booker held the pose on the second one that was cash.

"That's Devin, that's Devin," said Suns big Deandre Ayton, who posted a fourth straight double-double in this series with 21 points and 11 rebounds. "It's just that it hit different because it's playoffs."

With Phoenix up 95-86, Booker hit a jumper, found Durant for a corner 3 and got to the rim for a dunk. Booker pointed to the bench after his assist to Durant and followed the dunk with a huge smile while running back down the court.

He finished with 10 assists.

"The coolest part for me is seeing him get creative," Paul said. "Seeing those cross-court passes that he makes now. Reading the low man. Being together with him now for three years, it's been cool to see how he's progressing."

Booker closed his scoring eruption with a floater in the lane to put Phoenix up 109-90 with 31.6 seconds left in the quarter.

"Just feeling it out," Booker said. "We stressed in the locker room we didn’t want to go back to L.A. unless it was for the Western Conference Finals."

The Lakers have a 3-1 series lead on the second-seeded Grizzlies. The winner of that series will play either Sacramento or Golden State as those teams are tied 2-2 in the first round.

"Just wanted to get it done," Booker continued. "Being down nine points coming out of half. We knew we wanted to do it quick, we didn’t want to wait for the fourth quarter and try to fight an uphill battle. Glad we could get somecushion because we needed it.”

With his sixth career 40-point playoff game, Booker passed Charles Barkley for the most 40-point playoff games in franchise history.

“He was doing what Book does," Williams said. "There were times where he was taking what the defense gave him and then there were times where he just went and it did not matter.

The Suns trailed by nine at the half and as many as 10 points in the third quarter before outscoring the Clippers, 50-24, in the quarter.

That’s the most points the Suns have ever scored in a quarter in a postseason game.

"They went on a hell of a scoring barrage and it was tough for us to slow them down," Lue said.

The Clippers were once again without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George as both players were sidelined with right knee sprains. George hasn’t played since March 21 when injuring his knee against Oklahoma City.

Leonard sat the last three games of the series after scoring 38 points in Game 1, which the Clippers won, and 31 in Game 2 they lost in Phoenix.

“I would never say unfair hand," Lue said. "I would say I’ve been dealt some bad luck. You know, with our two star players. As easy as it is for me to say, it’s hard for those guys. You think PG and Kawhi want to be hurt in the playoffs? So I feel bad for those guys because they want to be out there helping their team and compete and unfortunately the last few years we haven’t had that so I feel bad for those guys for putting all the hard work in."

Cameron Payne made his return after missing the final game of the regular season and first four games of the series with low back soreness.

The Suns backup point guard played three minutes in the first half, didn’t score, but had two assists. He didn't play in the second half.

"There's such a matchup-driven team, they put smaller guys in situations and if you switch it, then you got Cam on (Mason) Plumlee or Cam on (Ivica) Zubac," said Williams when asked about playing Payne.

"We were trying to avoid that, but I thought just giving him a chance to get on the floor and get the pace up. I thought we slowed down a little bit. Book was running pick-and-roll at the time and I thought (Payne) made some really good passes to Kevin out of the corner. We were in a bit of a point-5 in that situation. I told him he's got to stay ready because we can use his speed."

Durant fell hard on his left hip/buttocks area after being fouled by Westbrook in the first half.

Westbrook undercut Durant on the play.

Later in the quarter during a timeout, Durant walked to the bench and rubbed at that area, but played the rest of the game.

"I feel good," Durant said. "Was able to finish the game. We got a couple of days off. I'll be fine."

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Booker erupts for 47 points as Suns beat Clippers in Game 5 closeout