Booker Delivers Against the Thunder: “We Can Play at Their Level”
An 18-point comeback, a game-winning bucket with 0.7 seconds left, and total leadership: the perfect night for Devin Booker against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder
The win over OKC marked the ninth time in his career that Devin Booker has scored the go-ahead basket in the final five seconds of a game. Since entering the league in 2015-16, only DeMar DeRozan has done it more often in that specific statistic.
What makes the shot even more significant? His primary defender was Alex Caruso, one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, with a late help attempt from Luguentz Dort.
You can’t afford, especially on the road, to give an All-Star of that caliber the chance to win the game.
Alex Caruso
Booker took the inbounds pass just beyond midcourt, dribbled up to the Suns logo, crossed between his legs, made a sharp move to his left, then rose and released perfectly over a suffocating defense.
The only “imperfection,” according to Booker, was leaving a few tenths of a second on the clock. But Ajay Mitchell’s desperate buzzer-beater attempt didn’t touch the rim.
A Win That Carries Weight, Especially Given How It Happened
The victory carries enormous symbolic value. The Suns (21-14) had lost the first two meetings of the season against OKC (30-6), including a 49-point loss in the NBA Cup, the most lopsided defeat of the entire NBA season – notably without Booker on the floor.
This time, the script flipped. Phoenix erased an 18-point deficit, showing mental toughness and roster depth against the league’s best defense.
Obviously, they’re everyone’s target. They’re the champs, and they’re experienced… everyone wants to measure themselves against them. We believe we can play at that level.
Devin Booker
Jordan Goodwin, the Unexpected Hero of the Comeback
While the game-winning shot belongs to Booker, the Suns’ comeback would not have been possible without Jordan Goodwin. The reserve guard finished with a career-high 26 points, shooting 9-of-16 from the field and 8-of-13 from three, repeatedly punishing OKC’s defensive rotations.
Booker directly assisted Goodwin on four of those baskets, consistently creating advantages, as highlighted postgame by Jordan Ott.
A lot of Goodwin’s threes come from Booker’s ability to move the ball. The group’s unselfishness starts with the best player.
Jordan Ott
Respect from the Opposition
Even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, held to 25 points on 8-of-22 shooting, acknowledged the performance of Booker and company.
They play hard, they play together. In this league, if you do those two things every night, you always have a chance.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
In the end, the feeling is that this game could serve as a turning point – not just in the standings, but in what it says about these Suns: a team that can endure, that doesn’t unravel when it falls behind, and that, when it truly matters, knows exactly who to trust.