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PHOENIX — Postseason basketball does not always make sense, does not always follow the expected script. With just more than two minutes left in Tuesday night’s NBA Play-In Tournament contest, Devin Booker dribbled three times, looked at the basket — and watched his free throw bounce off the rim.
That was one of five free throws Booker missed in the Phoenix Suns’ 114-110 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers at Mortgage Matchup Center. Of everything that unfolded in a game of breakneck swings, this was the most confusing, simply because Booker does not often miss.
And, also, he lives for these moments.
Just a day earlier, as Booker talked to reporters after practice, he was asked how much responsibility he should shoulder as the team’s leader and face of the franchise. “A lot,” Booker answered without hesitation. “That’s part of the title.”
Booker finished with 22 points against Portland, but he shot 8 of 13 from the foul line. He had not missed five free throws in a game since the season opener nearly six months earlier. That game meant little. Tuesday night’s contest meant a ton.
Phoenix’s loss moved the Suns to the front porch of elimination. On Friday night, they will host the winner of Wednesday’s Play-In matchup between the Golden State Warriors and LA Clippers. A feel-good season — the Suns were not expected to get this far — is on the line. Win and the Suns advance. Lose, and they go home.
This is not all on Booker, although his second-half production was alarming.
The Suns led 105-97 with less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter. They scored only one more field goal for the rest of the game. They were outscored 51-27 from the 3-point arc. A defensive-minded group, they allowed Blazers All-Star Deni Avdija to go off for 41 points and 12 assists.
And yet Phoenix still had a chance. Trailing 112-110 with 16.1 seconds left, Royce O’Neale inbounded the ball to Booker. Just 16 seconds earlier, Booker had penetrated and hit teammate Jordan Goodwin with a nifty pass. Goodwin scored on a reverse layup and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but Phoenix led, 110-109.
This time, Booker drove the lane again. Among the best defensive players in the league, Portland’s Toumani Camara matched him step for step. Instead of taking a contested shot, Booker picked up his dribble and looked for help. He noticed Portland guard Jrue Holiday looking at the ball and not at his man. Booker threw to Jalen Green, who had darted to open space. Streaky all night, Green had scored 35 points. This time, he missed. Goodwin grabbed the offensive rebound but was stripped. Portland sealed the game on a Jerami Grant dunk, clinching the Western Conference’s seventh seed and a date with the San Antonio Spurs in the first round.
“He made the right play,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said of Booker’s decision. “We got a pretty good look.”
“Maybe we could have dragged it out a little bit to waste a little more of the clock,” Green said, “but just trying to go for the win.”
“Once you miss a couple, then it just becomes a mental game,” Devin Booker said of his free-throw struggles in Tuesday night’s Play-In loss. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
Phoenix shot 50 percent from the field in the fourth quarter. Green had 11 points over the final 12 minutes; Dillon Brooks had nine. Booker did not have a field goal, missing all three of his attempts. In the second half, the star guard was 1 of 7 from the field.
Asked how this game got away, Booker said the Suns let Avdija get loose. Portland’s 6-foot-9 forward was 12 of 14 from inside the 3-point arc, with many of those attempts coming near the rim. Booker also mentioned his five missed free throws.
“Once you miss a couple, then it just becomes a mental game, overthinking something that you put millions of reps into,” Booker said.
Booker has played 47 postseason games over his 11-year career. Before Tuesday, he had never missed more than two free throws in a playoff game. Against the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2024, Booker sank 20 of 21 from the foul line. Against the Lakers in 2021, he made 17 of 17. Overall, Booker had made 89.9 percent of 308 free throws in his postseason career.
Which is what made Tuesday’s Play-In performance so head-scratching. Booker usually is clutch in these situations.
“I really don’t care if he misses 10, 12 — it doesn’t matter,” Suns guard Collin Gillespie said before leaving the Phoenix locker room. “He’s our best player. We’ll put the ball in his hands. He’ll make the right plays, and we’ll live and die with whatever he does. We got to help him as much as we can.”
The best news for the Suns is they get another chance. They left the arena late Tuesday night in a foul mood, which is one of their best qualities. Losses in the NBA can come so often and so quickly that it dulls the competitive spirit. That’s not the case with Phoenix. After a recent practice, Booker said it’s refreshing to find everyone “pissed off” after losses instead of acting like nothing is wrong.
A win Friday night clinches the Western Conference’s eighth seed and a first-round series with the Oklahoma City Thunder. A loss ends the Suns’ season.
“We addressed it right away — the goal is to get in,” Ott said of the playoffs. “Just get in any way possible. It’s been our goal for a while, but we got to move on. It sucks. These are hard to take. But there’s stuff to learn in here that we got to learn fast, and do everything we can to get ready for Friday night.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Portland sealed the game at the foul line. A Jerami Grant dunk provided the final points.
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