Phoenix Suns: Player grades from a dramatic win over the Mavericks

Booker overcame foul trouble to achieve milestone
Grade: A-

Chalk up another run-of-the-mill, 30-point game for Devin Armani Booker.

Really though, to eke out 30 points out of this wild game was truly a sight to behold considering he managed to do so while in foul trouble for the entirety of the contest.

Look, Luka Doncic is a great player. Just like James Harden, he is an offensive wizard, and his ability to make defenders look foolish is uncanny. Having said that, there are several plays where he doesn’t even attempt to score and makes his primary mission to draw a foul.

Unfortunately, it often works.

Because of this ability to do this well, it then leads to referees expecting him to draw the foul and are thus they much quicker on their whistles than they would be if, oh, I don’t know, say, Devin Booker tried to make a similar move.

Booker fell victim to a few Doncic-friendly whistles and at one point in the second quarter played like the Booker of yesteryear. With nothing going the Suns’ way, he played ticked off and as if he was the only person capable of leading his team to victory.

Sometimes that mentality works out, and other times it doesn’t, but he’ll be the first to tell you that regardless of his 30 points, this win belongs to his teammates.

Booker moved up to second all-time in franchise history in total number of 30-point games with 87, passing Amar’e Stoudemire and is now just three games shy of Walter Davis. More impressively, however, Booker has accomplished this feat in just 336 games while it took Stoudemire and Davis 516 and 766 games respectively to reach their milestones.