Saturday, Dec. 2 - Suns at Celtics
Pregame – All Eyes on Booker After Last Season's Outpour
BOSTON – The last time Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker was in Boston, he set a TD Garden record by dropping 70 points against the Boston Celtics. In Booker’s return to the parquet floor this afternoon, the C’s will do everything in their power to make sure he does not come close to approaching that number again.
“We talked a little bit about how he got his points (in the last matchup),” Stevens said ahead of the 1 p.m. tip. “They do a lot of creative things to help get him open. He’s a special offensive player … I thought we didn’t guard him quite as effectively as we had hoped. That being said, he’s still going to score some points.”
Booker’s 70-point game on March 24, which the Celtics surprisingly won by double digits, is one that Stevens remembers vividly.
“It was a unique game in that we put [Booker] on the foul line the whole game (26 times)," recalled the C's coach. "He scored in transition, and then he really got going late and hit a bunch of tough shots. He’s a heck of a player. I think the learning point from that is that we have to do a much better job on him.”
Fortunately, Boston is a much longer and more defensively-skilled team than it was last season. That should help them keep Booker, who is averaging 23.0 points per game this season, well under the 70-point mark this time around.
- Taylor C. Snow