Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton advance to semifinals of NBA 2K20 tourney

The Phoenix Suns are now 4-0 (in the NBA 2K20 player’s only tournament).

Both Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton won their quarterfinals matchups being broadcasted on ESPN2 and move on to the semifinals.

Booker defeated Washington’s Rui Hachimura 71-55 while Ayton got by Atlanta’s Trae Young 73-66.

The two Suns stars are on the opposite side of the bracket, so they could make it an all-Suns final with wins in the semifinals.

Booker is clearly not just your casual 2K player. As he did with the Milwaukee Bucks in his first win, Booker went five-out with shooters and a dominant ball-handler.

On the defensive end in this specific matchup, Booker doubled the Los Angeles Clippers’ Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.

That might sound like simple basketball strategy, but to get the game to quickly do what you want can often lead to frustrating results as a player.

So for Booker to be as seamless as he was running sets on offense, that’s impressive.

Coach Book pic.twitter.com/NkRmXCTwI6

— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) April 9, 2020

Hachimura got out to an early lead but Booker was able to read the rookie’s gameplay and adjust from there to an easy win.

As expected, he brought the trash talk as well.

Book’s banter game is elite LOL pic.twitter.com/Cl7Q7ak2d4

— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) April 9, 2020

Booker has used the Mavericks and Bucks as two of his eight teams. The Los Angeles Lakers are considered one of the top-two teams in the league, which Booker could be saving for the finals. He also has the Houston Rockets left in his pool, a decent bet for him to play with given the way he likes to space the floor.

It was a tougher task for Ayton. Young blew out Harrison Barnes by 42 in the first round, and proved up for the challenge that Ayton provides.

Ayton has a shortlist of hobbies and playing 2K is just about at the top of the list. He is obsessed with the create-a-player online mode known as MyPark, where players take their own created player into playground-style 3-on-3 play.

Ayton posted a screenshot of his stats on Instagram recently, showing over 3,800 games played, so it’s safe to say he knows how to play the game.

In a direct contrast to Booker, Ayton has all the individual movements with ball-handlers down pat because of specializing in that game mode, as opposed to Booker running the team aspects well.

Ayton was vibing with George all game and rode the multi-time All-NBA choice to the close win controlling the Clippers over Young’s Lakers.

🎮 @NBA2K Players Tournament 🎮@DeandreAyton locks up on defense and @Yg_Trece puts the ‼️ on his QF victory!

📺: #NBA2KTourney on ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/Lyqoj8NzO8

— NBA (@NBA) April 10, 2020

Unlike Booker, Ayton has saved the Bucks and Lakers for the last two rounds of the tournament, which should be a big advantage his way.

The semifinals and finals will be shown on ESPN Saturday, beginning at 2 p.m.

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