After Durant joined the Suns, the ups and downs of this season became the favorite to win the championship, and the entire Suns team was very happy with Durant's arrival, and returned with enough respect and care, not urging him to play but letting him recuperate.
During the 4-game streak, Durant finally ushered in the debut of his career with the Suns, judging from his performance on the court, he still closed the game, even so, the Suns still defeated the Hornets, Bulls, and the Lone Ranger, the first two games, the Suns won very easily, facing the Lone Ranger's game, Durant showed his "killer nature" and helped the team win at key moments.
Today's game against the Thunder was supposed to be Durant's home debut with the Suns, and for his upcoming home debut for his new team, Durant looked very excited in a previous interview, "It's nice to play a few games on the road and recover a lot of form, the home court will definitely be very lively, looking forward to meeting our home fans, I'm very excited to play at home." ”
However, in addition to the excitement, Durant looked a little more lucky, today's pre-game warm-up, another unconfrontational layup, Durant twisted his ankle, and then he fell to the ground, and got up a little hesitant. Although Durant continued to do some simple training on the court after he broke his foot, the Suns decided to take Durant out of today's game to be on the safe side.
In the face of the Thunder who just defeated the Warriors yesterday without Durant, the Suns still showed good competitive strength, and the game just started with Booker's hot hand to establish a clear advantage, and then in the rotation stage, although the team suffered some losses, but the starters returned to the court and quickly led the team to open the point difference, in only 3 quarters, the Suns established a 24-point advantage, and the final quarter was basically garbage time, and finally the Suns easily defeated the Thunder 132-101.
After winning this game, the Suns consolidated the top half of the Western Conference standings, and due to the recent ups and downs of the Warriors' form, they have opened up a clear advantage of three wins, and behind the former Kings and Grizzlies they have won two wins, and the current in-form Suns are in a good position in the West, sitting on two sides and have a chance to finish the regular season with a very high ranking.
Without Durant, the Suns' offensive firepower today was not affected at all, especially Booker and Terrence. Ross these two points, Terrence. After coming to the Suns, Ross brought a lot of offensive firepower to the Suns' relatively weak bench, today he shot 8 of 13, 6 of 10 three-pointers and scored 24 points, after coming to the Suns, Ross's performance had some ups and downs, this game is his best game since joining the Suns, and the Suns signed him to let him score, today his performance is what the Suns expect.
Although Booker played only 27 minutes today, he was both productive and efficient in less than half an hour, shooting 17 of 23 and 6 of 10 from three-point range, scoring 44 points. In the last 4 games, Booker averaged 38.0 points, 6.8 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game, shooting 60.2% from the field and 61.5% from three-point range, during which Booker played 137 minutes, with a cumulative plus-minus of +82!
After having Durant, many people thought that Booker might divide certain players, so that the data declined, but Booker's data did not decline, but because the team had another extremely strong offensive point containment, his efficiency has been phenomenally improved. And Booker also seems to be a very passionate player, only 27 minutes today, for him seems to be a little unfinished, the final quarter of the game, in the case of sealing the victory, he hid in the corner, not wanting to be discovered by the coach, but Monty replaced him, and when he learned that he would be replaced, Booker still said "Fxxk".
Today's game was very easy for the Suns, but the Suns' hearts are definitely tight now, and people are concerned about Durant's injury, and Suns reporter Duane Rankin reported after the game that Durant is now wearing protective boots. Head coach Monti said: "We still know what the situation is, tomorrow Durant will have more checks, now he has a sprained ankle, he is frustrated by missing his home debut, I understand how he feels. ”
Judging from the statements of the above two, Durant's injury may not be very serious, because he does not need an MRI and wears protective boots, which is more of a kind of protection for Durant. Booker, who performed well, said of Durant: "We will rearrange a home debut for Durant, and I believe that the fans will definitely enjoy it again, and I am on the court today to put on a wonderful show for the fans who missed Durant's debut." ”