Devin Booker sulked. Maybe it was the box score staring back. Maybe it was the scoreboard laughing from above. Maybe it was the ego, bruised like a Palisade Peach.
Then again, when it comes to Jamal Murray, maybe it was the question.
“Murray seems to be on a personal type of mission, the way he’s playing in particular,” a reporter asked the Suns guard after the Nuggets humbled Phoenix, 125-107, in Game 1 of the Western Conference semis Saturday night. “What do you have to do to slow him down?”
Another frown. Deeper this time.
“I don’t feel that,” Booker replied.
Oh, they feel him, all right. And with 5:55 to go in a laugher, Murray felt Phoenix right back.
That’s when veteran Suns point guard Chris Paul unleashed a bit of his inner John Starks. CP3 effectively back-checked Murray, hockey-style, while the latter was breaking away with the ball in his hand.
Paul lowered his shoulder, sending the Blue Arrow sliding onto the floor in a heap. Murray, who got the last laugh with a game-high 34 points, popped back up to his feet and grinned. Knowingly
In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Paul’s punk move warrants a five-minute major for interference. Unless, of course, you’re Jordan Eberle.
“If he’s doing that,” Murray said, taking CP3’s dirty play as a compliment, “then we’re doing something right.”
He’s in their heads already. Playoff Murray is no longer a 2020 thing. Or an Orlando thing. Or a bubble thing.
It’s No. 27’s default mode.
“Some of the shots he was hitting tonight,” Suns coach Monty Williams said of Murray, “I don’t think anybody could’ve stopped him.”
Not that Paul didn’t try. Despite having a target on his back — and his surgically-repaired knee — Saturday wound up becoming Murray’s third game of scoring at least 34 points over six postseason appearances this spring.
“It’s tough to stop great players,” Suns star Kevin Durant, downcast in a purple hoodie, said of the Blue Arrow. “(We need to) be more physical and just be there on the catch, be there on the shot
“I think he made some tough ones over us as well. But yeah, from the tip, we’ve just got to be physical and get into bodies (into him) and make everything tougher.”
KD was KD tough — 29 points, 14 boards. But he was also KD sloppy, accounting for nearly half (seven) of the Suns’ 16 turnovers.
If Booker was angry at the box score, Durant appeared to be slightly shocked. And when someone asked if he felt surprised to get run off the floor by Denver, the two-time NBA champion’s expression flipped to a tone of mild bemusement.
“Am I surprised about the Nuggets?” Durant said, repeating the question. “(Expletive), no.
“They’re a No. 1 seed for a reason. They got a two-time MVP (in Nikola Jokic). They’ve got a deep team. No, I’m not surprised they can go off and win games. So we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’re looking forward to Game 2, though.”
Probably not as much as Murray is, though, and the reasons are multifold.
The Nuggets guard on Saturday improved his personal record against the Suns franchise to a scorching 18-3 (.857) in 21 meetings. Murray’s head-to-head record against Booker, his fellow Kentucky Wildcat, is even wackier, at 15-2 (.882).
That’s not just how you crawl into another guy’s head. It’s how you start subletting a man’s very soul.
