Devin Booker catches fire late, finishes with 43 in Suns’ loss to Portland

It was another signature scoring explosion for Phoenix Suns shooting guard Devin Booker in Portland Tuesday night.

Unfortunately for him, a 21-point fourth quarter and 43-point overall performance came on a night in which the Suns couldn’t compete with the Portland Trail Blazers.

A 118-111 loss came at the result of an opening three quarters Portland dominated. A 36-31 first quarter deficit was followed by Portland outscoring the Suns 56-41 in the middle two quarters.

It was a fourth quarter the Suns didn’t have much life in, down by 20 at the start of it, but a brief 12-point scoring burst from Troy Daniels in two minutes would set the stage for Booker.

All Booker needed was a conversation with Portland forward Maurice Harkless that resulted in double technical fouls to get going.

Don’t tell Maurice Harkless to “chill out” #ripcity https://t.co/Q7dncn6uxC pic.twitter.com/WinrFk2xRd

— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) January 17, 2018

He would score 18 of those 21 points in a span that was less than six minutes long, starting with just over seven minutes remaining in the game.

The fourth quarter run included four 3-pointers and some heavily contested jumpers.

Devin Booker for the THRRRRRR (long two) 🙄 pic.twitter.com/JrtcuQ0m5v

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) January 17, 2018

Even with Booker going off, the Suns couldn’t get a stop on the other end. The deficit would only be as low as seven points in a quarter when the Trail Blazers still managed 26 points.

Booker outscored the Trail Blazers by himself in the closing seven minutes and change, a 21-15 advantage, but it was too much to overcome.

On the night, Booker would shoot 14-of-29 for those 43 along with six rebounds, eight assists, two steals, a block and four turnovers.

Portland shot 51 percent on the night, including 17-of-35 from 3-point range. Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum combined for 58 points.

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