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Devin Booker unleashes season-high 49 on Nuggets after 'disrespectful' introduction
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- Devin Booker unleashes season-high 49 on Nuggets after 'disrespectful' introduction
DENVER — Devin Booker already had plenty of incentive to win Thursday night.
Then the introduction of the starting lineups added major fuel to his fire.
When Booker's name was announced, Clippers guard Amir Coffey 's face was there instead of his with Booker's first and last name displayed on Coffey's picture on the scoreboard jumbotron at the top of Ball Arena.
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Oh (expletive).
"That was disrespectful," Booker said.
Booker proceeded to score 17 of his season-high 49 points in the first quarter in leading the Suns (60-14) to a 140-130 win that clinched the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs.
"Book having one of the best performance I've seen him have since I've been here," Suns coach Monty Williams said. "Because of the variables and the obstacles we had. The have 49 and 10 (assists) on a back-to-back."
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NBA: SCOREBOARD | STANDINGS | STATISTICS
Booker said he initially laughed when first seeing it, but thought that was "purposely done" to him. The Nuggets played the Clippers at home Tuesday and Coffey started the game at shooting guard, which is the same position Booker plays.
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A Nuggets official said it was a mistake and not intentional, explaining Coffey's photo was left over from Tuesday's game, and an attempt to update with Booker's photo failed to load after an operations team member attempted to correct it before the game.
Every other Suns starter had their face on the big screen correctly.
The three-time All-Star admitted he can see "anything" and take it as disrespect, but added his main objective is to always win. Booker certainly took seeing someone else's face personally and gave it to the Nuggets from opening tip to final buzzer.
"It's all fun and games, but we got the last laugh and every other laugh for the last few games against them," Booker said as the Suns swept the Nuggets in last year's playoffs. "Good team they got over there to put that up there because it got me going for sure."
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Booker played with elevated purpose and anger that translated into him making fearless and ferocious plays all night long.
Late in the third quarter, he had a two steals in less than a minute late that epitomizes the heightened level of energy, emotion and effort he played with Thursday night.
Booker ripped the ball away from Nuggets Jeff Green , scored, was fouled by Green and unleashed a massive yell as his bucket cut Denver's lead to seven.
Then he stole the ball from reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and raced to the rim for an uncontested dunk that made the difference four with 2:07 left.
The Suns finished the game with 30 points off 17 Denver turnovers.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone called a timeout, but the Suns went into the fourth down only two and with much momentum.
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Phoenix outscored Denver by 12 points in the final period in winning its seventh consecutive game and improving its NBA-best road record to 30-6.
"Phoenix is a really good team," Malone said. "There's a reason they have 60 wins, the best record in the NBA."
Mikal Bridges scored 22 points with 15 coming in the fourth quarter, Chris Paul posted a double-double of 17 points and 13 assists in his first game back after missing 15 with a fractured right thumb, but Booker put the Suns on his back in leading them to victory.
"When you can will your team to win like that and do it in a fashion that he did it in tonight says a lot about his work ethic, his individual ability and a lot of other stuff I don't have time to talk about, but just a huge win for the organization," Williams said.
A large contingent of Suns fans were in the arena chanting "M-V-P! M-V-P! at various points during the game as there was literally a Suns cheering section behind the bench.
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The Nuggets fans tried to drown it out with boos, but when the game was over, Booker stood alone on the court for his postgame TV interview with "M-V-P" chants coming from Suns fans in full gala.
When asked if his name should in the conversation for league MVP, Booker answered with one simple, but direct word.
"Yeah." Booker said.
Williams agrees.
"The fact that that he's not in the MVP conversation is just somewhat silly," Williams said.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin .
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Devin Booker unleashes season-high 49 on Nuggets after 'disrespectful' introduction
