Devin Booker was having yet another stellar postseason performance on Tuesday. He scored 31 points in 25 minutes, and at one point, he even dapped up a baby sitting courtside. With Phoenix in the lead against the No. 8 seeded New Orleans Pelicans, the Suns appeared to be on their way to a 2-0 series lead. But in the third quarter, Booker went back to the locker room with an apparent injury and did not return in Phoenix’s Game 2 loss.
Booker suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain in Game 2, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Booker will reportedly miss the next two to three weeks. The Pelicans, however, will prepare as if he is coming back sooner than that, per ESPN. The team has not provided an official timeline for Booker’s absence ahead of Friday’s Game 3.
“We’ve played without Chris (Paul) and Book before,” Suns coach Monty Williams said following Game 2. “If we have to play without Book, next man up. We’ve done that all year long.”
Now the series will shift to New Orleans, and while the Suns will remain favorites, the pressure is on. They no longer have home-court advantage, and, while they had an 8-3 record in the 11 games they played without Booker before clinching the No. 1 seed, playoff games are another matter entirely.
Seven of those missed games were due to a hamstring injury Booker suffered in November, and while there’s no telling how serious this one is, that one kept him out for a little less than three weeks. Generating offense without your top scorer is a much taller order when teams have played you multiple times in a short span
