Raptors 112, Suns 105
The Reaper was back, but Kevin Durant’s return to the lineup wasn’t enough tonight. The shorthanded Suns, missing Beal (back), Grayson Allen (sick), and Nassir Little (birth of daughter), didn’t have quite enough juice to defeat the Raptors tonight, even though it was the Raptors getting in late after playing on the back-to-back. But now everyone wants to know if Devin Booker is all right, or will he miss time?
Devin Booker left the game in the third quarter after he rolled his ankle while coming down on the foot of a Raptor.
A few minutes later, the warrior returned. But he did not seem right. Even before the injury, it was one of the worst shooting nights of Book’s career. He finished 2 for 12 (0 for 4 on 3s) for 8 points. He still contributed 5 assists and 5 rebounds, but it was by far his worst performance of the season. Should he have even played after the injury? Probably not, but now we wait now to see how it responds and whether swelling, etc, will keep him out vs the Nuggets or even beyond.
The Raptors are a long team. They used that to their advantage, hounding the Suns into tough shots and getting 15 offensive rebounds. The Suns played hard and had 12 O-rebs of their own and only lost the rebounding battle by 2. But they really missed Nas Little. They needed a big wing like that to help against all the long wings the Raptors have.
Jusuf Nurkic had his best game as a Sun, putting up 19 points and 14 rebs with 6 assists and 2 blocks. He kept the Suns in the game until the end, along with Durant, who had 30 points. KD finished 11-30 from the field, though, quite rusty in his return.
Another Sun who played fairly well was Josh Okogie, who got the start and the first bucket of the game, en route to 10 points and 7 rebounds.
The Raptors were led by Scottie Barnes, who had 23 pts and 7 rebs with 3 blocks, and Pascal Siakam with 22 pts and 9 rebs. Jakob Poeltl also scored 17 on 8-9 shooting.
The Suns kept making runs and stayed in the game largely due to going 22-23 from the free throw line. But they shot 40% overall, with their 2 stars being off their games. Still, they were only down 3 points with a minute left after Nurkic had a huge block. Schroder then made a shot in the lane while KD and Booker both missed 3s badly, and the game was over.
Now we all wait to see if Booker is healthy enough to play Friday as the defending champ Nuggets enter the Footprint Center. Rest up, king.
