Suns' Devin Booker 'Ready' For Mavs; Can Dallas Slow Him Down?
The Phoenix Suns managed to get by the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs despite Devin Booker suffering a hamstring injury in Game 2 — causing him to miss the next three games.
Booker was firing on all cylinders before suffering a hamstring strain in Game 2 of their first-round series. He was up to 31 points on shooting 12-19 (63.2 percent) shooting from the floor and was 7-11 (63.6 percent) on 3s in just 25 minutes. He was on a "heater" and appeared primed to have a massive night before having it come to an early end.
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Booker returned to the Suns' lineup for Game 6 of the series. He played 32 minutes and finished with 13 points on 5-12 from the floor and 1-6 on 3s. It was far from his best performance but was a necessary step in getting back into form.
“I just made sure my body was ready," Booker said. "I was confident in it, and I tested it. I got some good work in (Wednesday), and I knew the adrenaline was going to kick in. It was time to go, and this was a big game for us."
Booker has had plenty of time to work his way back into form ahead of the Western Conference Semifinals. He will rank high on the list of priorities for the Mavericks' defense as they look to build on their impressive first-round performance against the Utah Jazz.
"Feels great, ready to go," Booker said.
The "head of the snake" of the Jazz's offense is Donovan Mitchell, one of the NBA's most prolific scoring guards. He relies a lot on getting to his pull-up 3 using ball screens and that was largely neutralized in the series by Dorian Finney-Smith.
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While Booker has a significant portion of his scoring impact using ball screens to get to pull-up jumpers, he's wired to turn the corner to get into short-range for pull-ups more often. Finney-Smith will surely work to challenge using his length.
If the Mavericks look to switch against ball screens more often, they will need frontcourt options like Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber to each be ready to hold their own out in space. Both have shown an ability to do so, but Booker is not a simple matchup.
With Chris Paul orchestrating the offense, there's a lot of firepower for a defense to account for when tasked with slowing down the Suns' offense. Additionally, Deandre Ayton is a tough rim roller, Mikal Bridges has improved overall, and they have plenty of spot-up shooting threats.
