NBA Top Five Performances, March 8: Devin Booker Made Franchise History with 44 Points Against the Oklahoma City Thunder

The Suns won their fourth consecutive game.

TOP PLAYERS OF THE DAY:

Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant was sidelined against the Oklahoma City Thunder after sustaining an ankle injury in pregame warmups.

Devin Booker stepped up in Durant's absence with a 44-point performance in a blowout victory. He shot 74 percent from the field, including 6 of 10 from 3-point range. Booker is back to his All-Star form, averaging 38 points to start the month. He is the first player in Suns history to score 35 points in four consecutive games.

“That’s what he does man,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “We said it at the end of the Dallas game. Kevin had 37, Book had 36 and I told the group you can’t take that for granted. I think when guys do it, the way they do it, it’s easy to think they’re gonna be like that all the time. It’s a high level of skill, hard work and experience. But he’s a phenomenal basketball player, and that kind of scoring is something we don’t take for granted.”

OTHERS:

- Zach LaVine’s 29-point performance helped the Chicago Bulls blowout the No. 1 seeded Denver Nuggets.

- C.J. McCollum had 32 points to help the New Orleans Pelicans stave off a furious Dallas Mavericks comeback. He scored 16 straight in the fourth quarter, which halted the Mavericks from going ahead of New Orleans late.

- The Washington Wizards’ loss to the Atlanta Hawks was not without a lack of effort by Kristaps Porzingis, who had a career-high 43 points on 7 of 13 shooting from 3-point range.

- Kawhi Leonard had 24 points, 12 rebounds and three steals in the Los Angeles Clippers’ win over the Toronto Raptors.

Jayden Armant is a contributor to Inside the Heat. He is a student at Howard University. He can be reached at jayden.armant@bison.howard.edu or follow him on Twitter @jaydenarmant.