In this game, Devin Booker played ______
EMOTIONALLY
When Devin Booker gets heated or whatever reason, it can go one of two ways. Either he can absolutely go off and prove himself one of the best players in the league, or he can make immature mistakes and play like one of the biggest boneheads in the league. There is really no in-between.
Most of the time, his frustration stems from the referees, and to be fair, Suns fans often agree. There is no way to measure this stat objectively, but I would venture to say there is no player who averages at least 25 points per game who gets more bad calls (or lack of calls) against him.
The issue Booker runs into more than Monty Williams would like to see is that he often compounds the problem with silly, legit fouls soon afterward, and there is no better example of that than this game against the Indiana Pacers.
Booker picked up four fouls in a span of two and a half minutes in the third quarter. One was an incredibly cheap offensive foul that they would never call on LeBron or Luka, and it got to his head. Instead of playing smart with four fouls, he got mad and became super aggressive.
He drove the lane hard and scored a tough deuce (the good), but then tried to draw a low-percentage charge at the top of the key, and picked up his fifth (the bad).
Maybe it was a blessing in disguise and Cam Payne and Dario Saric turned in a 21-point run, but still, when Booker gets ticked, he turns into quickly oscillating personas of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde.