Devin Booker feasts on Clippers' defense, has 45 in Suns' win

LOS ANGELES — Devin Booker has been a good scorer since he came into the league in 2016. But he has taken it to another level since Kevin Durant joined the Phoenix Suns in February.

Booker scored a game-high 45 points on a blistering 18-for-29 shooting (62 percent) in the Suns' 129-124 victory over the Clippers in Game 3 on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, as Phoenix took a 2-1 lead in their best-of-7 first-round series.

Booker has now scored 109 points in the first three games of the series, the most for a Suns player since Charles Barkley (112 points) in 1994.

«You can't leave [Durant], obviously. He draws a lot of attention,» Booker said. «A lot of the buckets I scored, I went right to him right after and said, 'You opened that up.'»

Durant scored 28 points himself, going 11-for-11 from the free throw line, as the Clippers threw multiple defenders and looks at him to compensate for Kawhi Leonard missing the game with a knee injury.

«I almost feel bad for Kevin sometimes because he's like an expensive decoy out there,» Suns coach Monty Williams joked. «He's standing at the 28-foot hash and the defender is right in his face. That gives Book a number of opportunities to attack the basket.

»Even when we run him in actions… sometimes two guys go with Kevin when he comes off of a screen. So that opens up the floor for everyone else."

Booker has been feasting on the space.

Thursday night Booker went 7-for-11 on open field goal attempts. Of those 11 open attempts, Durant was on the court for 10 of them, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

«I probably didn't create that,» Durant joked afterward, recalling a specific play where Booker credited him for opening up a shot for him. «He's so good, he can get whatever