'Keep grinding': Suns back home vs. Cavaliers after Booker's 52-point barrage in New Orleans

Devin Booker had just finished delivering a third straight 50-point barrage filled with 3s and layups to floor the New Orleans Pelicans, 124-111, Monday night at Smoothie King Center.

In his usual chill mode even after a big night — and even bigger win for the Phoenix Suns — Booker wanted to see a sea of family and friends still waiting to greet, hug and take pictures with him in baseline stands at the otherwise empty arena then return to Phoenix to launch a crucial four-game homestand Wednesday night.

“Take this long-ass flight home and get ready for Cleveland,” said Booker, already looking ahead to a game that will be the second of a back-to-back for the Cavaliers (45-30), who play Tuesday at Utah. “We have what, five, six games left? One at a time.”

It's seven actually after the Suns (44-31) finished their five-game road trip 3-2 starting with a 25-point romp over the Spurs followed by a costly loss to the same team that was without rookie phenom, Victor Wembanyama. They responded with an impressive victory over defending NBA champion Denver only to crash and burn two days later by 25 points to Oklahoma City minus its best player, MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Phoenix once again bounced back in building a 24-point lead in the first quarter of Monday’s win to move up to seventh in the West and just a game behind the Pelicans (45-30) for sixth, but they can’t afford another letdown as they try to avoid the play-in tournament.

“Just take it day at a time, keep grinding,” Suns superstar Kevin Durant said. “See how we play next game. We’re going to prepare the right way. We’re going to be excited we get to go back home. It’s been a while. It feels like we’ve been on the road the whole month. Just take it a game at a time."

The 7-10 teams in each conference compete in the play-in for the final two playoff seeds in each conference. The Suns still face the toughest remaining schedule with this being their last homestand of the regular season. They're 1-0 versus the Cavs, winning 117-111 in Cleveland on March 11 as Donovan Mitchell was out with a left knee injury.

Mitchell has since returned and is coming off a 13-point game on 3-of-12 shooting in a 130-101 loss at Denver Sunday.

“I know we want to see more consistency,” Durant continued. “Everybody just watching us want to see more consistency, but we’ll enjoy this one (at New Orleans) and just prepare for the next game."

The Suns led by as many as 27 points Monday night with Booker scoring a game-high 52 points as all five starters reached double digits in points.

"It was special," Suns wing Royce O'Neale said. "When he gets in that mode, feel like everything's going in. It was."

Booker joined Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain as the only NBA players to post three consecutive 50-point games against the same opponent.

“Anytime you get named with Wilt, it’s happened very few times in my career, but you know you did something special,” Booker said.

Booker blitzed the Pelicans for 58 last season and dropped 52 on them in January before matching that point total Monday. His historic night included a team-high nine assists and an intense rant at the end of the third quarter as New Orleans cut Phoenix’s massive lead to 13 going into the fourth.

Holding his hands out in frustration, Booker was seemingly screaming at anyone in shouting distance.

“Just trying to get the team locked in,” Booker said. “We’ve let some leads slip and it’s not the time to let that happen. We all understand how important this game is and it’s no secret how we’ve performed in the fourth quarter this year."

The Suns are last in the NBA in plus-minus in the fourth quarter at minus-3.

“I feel like when we have those chances to put teams away, instead of taking the foot off the gas a little bit, we just need to put ‘em asleep and get some rest,” Booker added.

Having two strong practices going into Monday’s matchup at New Orleans after Friday’s loss at OKC gave Suns coach Frank Vogel confidence going into the second meeting against the Pelicans.

“We’re going to be sharp,” Vogel said before Monday’s game. “Not happy with the last loss and every game matters right now.”

The Suns, led by Booker, came out shooting 66.7% in the first quarter to take a 46-28 lead.

“I had a good feeling we were going to be really sharp right out of the gates,” Vogel said. “We came in and jumped on them. Really jumped on them.”

At one point in the first quarter, Booker was outscoring the Pelicans, 24-22.

“When you making shots, you don’t even think about nothing else,” Durant said. “You could just tell he was in a zone. He was just in his own world. That’s just one of the best feelings in ball. When just totally in that Zen mode where nothing really matters. Everything just happens so effortlessly. We could feel that as his teammates.”

The Suns won’t have the luxury of having two days between games the rest of the regular season. They play their final seven games in a span of 12 days with a home-away back-to-back against the Clippers in the heart of it.

That’s a big reason why Monday’s win was so big for Phoenix. The Suns not only have the toughest remaining schedule, but there’s also not much rest in between games.

“Huge, huge,” Suns star guard Bradley Beal said. “A good opportunity to close the gap on this team a little bit and potentially pass them.”

The Suns and Pelicans meet one more time Sunday in Phoenix.

“We still got to take care of business a game at a time, but we needed this one bad,” Beal added.

The Suns got the better of the Pelicans again thanks in large part to Booker, who, like his previous game in New Orleans with supporters in the stands, posted more than 20 points in the first quarter.

He scored 25 in the first quarter in January and registered 24 Monday night.

“The crib is close, I have a lot of family in attendance,” Booker said. “I grew up coming here. This the first NBA arena I’ve been to. There’s some history here.”

Pelicans coach Willie Green wasn’t trying to see history repeat itself, but once again watched Booker go to work against his team in shooting 19-of-28 from the field.

“Quite frankly, we were soft guarding him,” a candid Green said after Monday's game. “We had a soft mentality when it came to being physical on him.”

Green was Booker’s player development coach for two seasons as an assistant (2019-21) in Phoenix.

"They have great defenders,” Booker said about the Pelicans. “Long, athletic, physical. Willie knows most of my tricks. It’s just making shots. The same shots I usually take.”

Booker cashed perhaps his most difficult one of the night fading out of bounds over the Pelicans’ best defender, Herb Jones, in the first half.

“I knew it was coming,” O’Neale said. “It reminded me of the game winner he had against the Knicks (in New York on Nov. 26, 2023).”

Booker also broke out a 3-point shooting slump in going 8-of-16 from 3 with six of made deep ones coming in the first half to reach that total the 27^th time in his career. He was 18-of-64 on 3s in his previous 10 games since returning from a right ankle sprain that sidelined him four games.

Then early in the second half, Booker finally set a new career high from 3.

“I’ve been through stretches like that plenty of times, and usually, when it counts, it’s time to make them.”

Booker also had five layups Monday night with the latter two keeping the Pelicans at bay after they pulled within seven, 115-108, with 2:46 left in the game. Beal continued the paint parade with a driving basket to increase Phoenix’s advantage to double digits again, 121-111, with 1:02 remaining.

“(Jusuf Nurkic) was sealing Zion (Williamson) and Nurk literally yelled out, ‘Drive it, drive it,’” a smiling Beal said. “So just drove to the basket. I knew the shot clock was running down.”

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

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns face Cavs after Devin Booker's 52-point blast in win vs. Pelicans