'I wanted to take that one': Inside look at Devin Booker's game-winning 3 to shock Knicks

NEW YORK – Devin Booker made a difficult launch look easy over two New York defenders with the final seconds ticking away Sunday night at Madison Square Garden to shock the Knicks.

“He made a great shot,” Knicks forward Julius Randle said. “Fading out of bounds, a 3-pointer over two people. You have to tap him on the butt and say good job. He made a great shot and there isn’t much you can do about it.”

Fading right from 26 feet out, Booker drained it between R.J. Barrett and Randle right in front of the Knicks bench with 1.7 seconds left to give the Suns their seventh straight win, 116-113.

“Unreal,” Suns big Drew Eubanks said. “Over two guys, get to his spot. I knew that was going in.”

For Booker, it was something he had already done – in his mind.

“It’s a shot that I’ve imagined in my head multiple times,” he calmly said after the game as he finished with 28 points on 10-of-25 shooting. “So it felt like I’ve been there before.”

Lived and learned

Booker’s amazing shot started long before taking the floor after a timeout with 21.9 seconds left and a sellout crowd of 19,812 still roaring after Jalen Brunson tied it with a jumper on his game-high 35-point night.

He remembers being in this situation before and trying to draw contact to get to the free throw line.

Nah. Can't do that.

“If you drive it and try to get any type of contact, especially on the road, it’s 90% you’re not going to get the call even if you get fouled,” Booker said.

Case in point.

Early in the 2019-20 season, Booker drove on Malik Beasley, drew contact, but didn't get the whistle as his future teammate – Torrey Craig – blocked the shot at the buzzer of an Suns 108-107 overtime loss at Denver.

Beasley backed away with his hands up on the play, but contact was made.

"At the end of the game, you're never supposed to try to get something at the rim," Booker said after that Oct. 25, 2019 thriller. "I should've known better, but you live and you learn.”

Much has changed for Booker since then.

He’s become a three-time All-Star and made first-team All-NBA. He and Chris Paul led the Suns to the 2021 NBA Finals and a franchise-best 64 wins in 2021-22. He signed a supermax deal for four years, $224 million that kicks in next season.

He just earned his eighth Western Conference player of the week honor Monday, the most in franchise history, after averaging 30.3 points in 4-0 Phoenix run. The red-hot Suns (11-6) have won their last seven games

Respect has been earned, but he’s lived and learned from experiences like the one in Denver that factored in how he approached Sunday’s final seconds.

“Tried to get one close, but it felt good,” Booker said. “It felt like a clean shot.”

'Return to sender'

Suns coach Frank Vogel has seen the NBA evolve from the offense running through the big man to it being perimeter driven, but there has been one constant in late-game situations.

Force the ball out of the best player’s hands.

With Kevin Durant watching from the bench with a sore right foot, everyone in the arena knew Booker was going to get the ball and that the Knicks were going to double.

They’d been doing it all night. Why change now?

But the Suns were prepared, with what Vogel is calling a “return to sender concept” that leads to the ball finding its way back to Booker on this play.

“It’s a lot of situations, we swing the ball out of the double team and work it around the wheel and other guys got to make plays, but the defense wins because they took the ball out,” Vogel said.

The Suns had 3-point blasters Eric Gordon and Yuta Watanabe in the corners, 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic on the block and Jordan Goodwin up top opposite of Booker.

As the clock was winding down, Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley left Goodwin to double Booker, who was being guarded by Barrett, with nine seconds left to force Booker to pass the ball.

'Gives you a certain feeling’

He obliged, but Booker wasn’t going to leave the mecca of basketball without taking that shot.

“When I'm here in the summer and I get the chance to drive by MSG, it just gives you a certain feeling," Booker said.

Booker missed out on last season’s trip to New York in January with a groin injury suffered Christmas Day against the Nuggets in Denver.

“I was at the crib just hurting and thinking about it,” Booker said.

He had family in New York, close friends that live in the city.

He saw his idol, the late great Kobe Bryant, score 61 in The Garden in 2009.

On Sunday, he didn’t have Durant on the court with him. He had guys on the court capable of making a shot, but it was his time. Just a matter of getting the ball back to him.

Enter Goodwin.

‘Devin Booker being Devin Booker’

The Suns backup point guard had scored 14 points in a second straight game, filled with confidence, but Goodwin had one job at that moment – make sure Booker had the ball for the final shot.

No problem.

“I feel like me and Book got a good relationship on the court,” Goodwin said. “You see it a lot with our two-man game. The relationship we’ve built from training camp to now, and he a dog. He’s going to talk to you and let you know what he want.”

Booker wanted the ball back. Period.

“I told them in the huddle,” Booker said. “I knew they were going to double. Catch it and look away and bring it back to me.”

Goodwin obliged – and watched it all unfold.

“The rest is Devin Booker being Devin Booker,” he said.

Vogel’s “concept” has options to relocate the ball to the main option with one being fake a pass and pass it back.

Goodwin did just that, but the distance between he and Booker led him to doing a running dribble handoff.

“We tried to make sure he got the best shot possible,” Gordon said.

‘Always complainin’ about the double’

Goodwin even through in essence a screen to slow down Barrett from tracking Booker.

Even with that strategy, the Knicks still found a way to have two defenders around Booker as he made his move to the right as Randle picked him up.

“He chased it back then it was challenged pretty good,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “So, you know it was a tough shot.”

And Booker still made it.

“I mean, there’s always stuff that you can look back on maybe if you stayed there a little longer, blitz a little harder,” Knicks big Isaiah Hartenstein said. “I think you can always look back and maybe find something better but I mean he’s taking a fadeaway from the corner three, so you got to tip your hat to a special play like that.”

And Booker couldn’t help but go on Instagram and jab back at those who said he couldn’t handle doubles after he and Joakim Noah got into it over him taking offense to it in an open gym in 2019.

“Always complainin’ about the double,” wrote Booker on the post that had his game-winning shot.

Oh boy.

The post included video of Durant going crazy and slapping fives on the baseline in celebration.

‘The guy is cold blooded’

Eubanks feverishly capped his hands walking onto the court and the Suns players and coaches on the bench set up a congratulatory line Booker calmly walked through giving fives.

That was the immediate reaction.

Minutes later after exhaling from watching Brunson nearly force overtime with a 3 that rimmed in and out at the buzzer and settling down in the cramped visiting locker room, the Suns gave their guy his props.

Watanabe – “That was crazy. I’m glad he’s on my team. If I was on the other team, I’d be so pissed.”

Gordon – “I was under the basket and it looked good. It was great he made that shot. That’s a tough one.”

Goodwin – “I thought he was Kobe for a second. That what I thought he was. Over two defenders, win a game. That’s big-time.”

Vogel – “It's Devin Booker, man. The guy is cold blooded. Big-time shot.”

The right play

Booker understood how the play typically unwinds after a double.

“The usual play is to hit that man and have him drive and play your advantage numbers on the backside,” Booker said.

Players have been praised – and criticized – for making “the right play” and passing the ball in that situation.

Booker has done both, been cheered when it resulted in a win and jeered when it didn’t, but he was going to personally live with the results this time.

“With the game on the line, I wanted to take that one,” he said.

That’s what the great ones do. That’s why he’s the franchise player.

That was indeed the right play.

And that shot won the game for Phoenix.

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: 'I wanted to take that one': Inside look at Devin Booker's insane 3