PHOENIX – Michael Malone deadpanned even though he found the subject of the quip anything but funny.
Devin Booker, one half of the Suns’ superstar duo, had just torched the Nuggets for 47 points and combined with Kevin Durant (39) for 86 on a night that the Nuggets could have built a 3-0 lead but instead fell, 121-114. The win allowed Phoenix to climb back to 2-1 in the Western Conference semifinal matchup.
“(Booker) was 20 of 25. I wasn’t a math major but that’s a really high percentage,” Malone said. “We’ve got to be a helluva lot better. They played fast tonight. Cam Payne really set the tone on that. Makes, misses and turnovers, they got out and ran. Twenty-three fast-break points is way too many.”
Phoenix’s superstar duo ensured the Nuggets will not sweep. Series on, with Game 4 Sunday night in Phoenix.
“That was pretty incredible. Book’s a hell of a baller man, c’mon. We know this,” Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon said. “He’s going to have nights like that, we just have to make it harder for him.”
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic put together another resplendent outing with 28 points, 17 rebounds and 17 assists, the first player in NBA playoffs history with 25-plus points and 15-plus rebounds and assists. Jokic had booked his ninth postseason triple-double midway through the third quarter.
Twice in the final 2:30 he passed up good opportunities from beyond the arc to get wide-open looks for Jamal Murray (32 points), but Murray missed both and Denver never got closer than five points in the closing minutes.
“Everybody on the floor missed a shot in (that stretch of) the fourth quarter,” Jokic lamented.
With Phoenix point guard Chris Paul out due to a groin injury suffered in Game 2, Malone said he expected Durant and Booker to be extra aggressive facing a 2-0 hole and staring into the abyss that is a three-game deficit in the NBA postseason. He implored his team to be “ready for anything.”
The Nuggets got a full blast of the Suns’ superstar duo.
Booker hit 12 of his first 15 shots for 27 points in the first half while Durant, who shot six free throws in the first two games of the series in Denver, converted 11 of 12 from the line in the first half and had 21 points by intermission. The duo’s scoring powered a 67-52 halftime lead that swelled to as many as 16 in the opening minute of the third quarter.
Denver showed its mettle and climbed back into the game in front of a juiced Footprint Center crowd.
The Nuggets turned a 69-54 deficit into a 79-78 lead in 6 minutes, 25 seconds of dominant third-quarter play, sparked by an 11-point burst from Murray and a 12-of-21 shooting performance overall in the period.
Soon after Denver took the lead, the Suns’ explosive duo hit right back.
On the strength of two tough Booker finishes and a Durant dunk in transition, Phoenix opened the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run to push its advantage back to 11.
“We can’t just play defense for one quarter,” Malone said.
While Booker and Durant handled the heavy lifting and then some, the Nuggets have relied on depth and consistency through their hot postseason start. They got too little early on Friday night. Aaron Gordon picked up three first-half fouls, missed all five of his shots in the first 24 minutes and had one rebound. The Suns turned two Michael Porter Jr. turnovers into transition points but MPJ bounced back as the game progressed and finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds.
“I didn’t play my best,” Gordon said.
Nothing came quite so easily on the road for Denver as their series lead was halved.
“They played really well tonight. Their two best players did what they were supposed to do — they put the team on their back, they had great great nights,” Malone said. “Our defense has to be a hell of a lot better come Sunday afternoon.”
Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.
