Booker returned to mid-season form
In the three exhibition games, we saw Booker go about 75 percent. It wasn’t that he was loafing, but he was focused on facilitating, getting shots up when he needed to, and getting comfortable with all things NBA bubble courts.
In this game, however, he turned it on and returned to mid-season form. He waltzed to 27 points, four assists, and five rebounds in effortless fashion.
However, because no one is perfect, I feel obliged to point out a few points where Booker could drastically improve.
Booker is good at almost every facet of the game, but throwing lob passes is not one of them. His lobs to Ayton are more like a tennis player tossing the ball up for a serve if that tennis player had never played tennis before.
On one play, Ayton got it somehow, made a move to the rim and dunked it, but there were several times where it was so off, it resulted in a turnover. In fact, Booker could really catapult his game if he reduced his turnovers, may of which are careless.
He led the team with five on the day, and while he more than makes up for those with his scoring and passing, cutting those down would take his game to an even greater level.