Beijing time on January 18, the NBA regular season continued, the Sun away 121-107 victory over the Spurs, ushered in four consecutive wins, the first three quarters of this battle the two teams also played back and forth, the fourth quarter, the Sun single quarter played a wave of 34-16, after winning this victory, the Sun record of 34 wins and 9 losses, continue to sit firmly in the league first.
In this game, Booker's performance was perfect.
Booker scored 18 points in the first quarter and 25 at halftime, and in the third quarter, Booker went back on his laurels, scoring 16 points in a single quarter, and by the end of the third quarter, Booker had scored 41 points.
In the end, Booker played less than 35 minutes, shooting 18-of-33, 5-of-13 from three-point range, 7-of-8 from the free throw line, and had 48 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals, and did not make a single mistake.
In addition to the high-scoring victory, Booker also set a number of records:
- The highest score of the individual season and the fifth highest score of the NBA this season
- 10th half-time 20+ of the season, the Suns won all 10 games
- 15th career 40+, tied with Amarestad Meyer, and ranked first in team history
——He has won 45+5+5 many times in his career, the only one in team history
After the game, Suns coach Monty Williams said he didn't realise Booker had 48 points until the end of the game, otherwise Booker would have cut a 50+ today.
In the past few games, Booker's form has been very hot:
Against the Pacers, he shot 11-of-25, 6-of-13 three-pointers, and had 35 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, including 22 points in the third quarter
Against the Pistons, Booker played only three quarters, shooting 11-of-18, and had 30 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, with plus-minus as high as +20 on the court
It is worth mentioning that on the same day that he scored 48 points, Booker was also elected the Western Conference Player of the Week last week, which was the second time this season and the fifth time in his career that Booker won this honor.
So far this season, Booker's performance has also been quite outstanding.
So far, Booker has played in 36 games, averaging 24.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.0 steals in 32.9 minutes per game, shooting 44.7%/40.3%/86.2% of the three shots and shooting 56.2% of the total.
Compared to last season (25.6 points per game), Booker's scores have decreased a little, and his efficiency has actually declined a little, but as a famous scorer who has scored 70 points in the second grade, Booker has no need to prove himself with high scores, as he said after today's game: "I used to get high scores, but the team can't win the ball, now it's different, I try to win every game, winning is better than everything." 」 ”
There is no doubt that Booker is already a superstar.
In the second round of all-Star voting announced not long ago, Booker's votes were not high, only in the fifth place in the Western Conference backcourt, and it is likely that he will not start, but this time, if there is no Booker name on the bench list (Booker has been substituted for the previous two years), it is absolutely unreasonable.
Not only the All-Star, but also one of the MVP candidates in terms of this year's performance, and can even be said to be the league's first quarterback this season. After the end of the season, Booker is also likely to be named to the All-Team for the first time in his career – in the previous six years of his career, Booker had never been in the best team list.
Of course, these honors may be secondary, what matters is the victory - a few years ago, Booker lost some good feelings because of that 70-point loss, in the past two years, Booker has grown a lot, although he is only 25 years old, but he is already very mature, I hope he and Paul can continue to lead the Suns this year, there is always someone to reach the Finals, there is always someone to win the championship, why not Booker and the Suns?