PHOENIX SUNS

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

Jan 16, 2018, 11:16 PM | Updated: 11:26 pm

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.

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.

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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