{"id":47025,"date":"2022-04-26T09:41:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T13:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=47025&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=47025"},"modified":"2022-04-26T09:41:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T13:41:08","slug":"phoenix-suns-look-to-survive-devin-bookers-hamstring-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/04\/26\/phoenix-suns-look-to-survive-devin-bookers-hamstring-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Suns Look to Survive Devin Booker&#8217;s Hamstring Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>The Phoenix Suns led the Western Conference teams with a 64-18 win\/loss tally in the Western Conference. The Suns clinched the best win record and were healthy coming into the playoffs until Shooting Guard <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2021\/06\/06\/devin-booker-has-arrived-as-a-nba-superstar\/\" target=\"_self\">Devin Booker&#8217;s hamstring injury<\/a> in the third quarter of their Game 2 resulted in their loss in Phoenix, Tuesday night.<\/p>\r\n<h2>Can the Phoenix Suns Survive without Devin Booker?<\/h2>\r\n<h3><strong>Devin Booker\u2019s Hamstring Injury<br \/><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bookede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devin Booker<\/a><\/strong> went with the Suns to New Orleans despite his hamstring injury; he had been rehabbing and making stretches during his drills but still has to do more to strengthen his muscles. His drills do not appear close to returning in Game 4 of the round 1 playoffs against the Pelicans but he is trying to improve his condition. The Shooting Guard is averaging 26.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 2.7 from beyond the arc, and 4.6% from the free-throw line. Over the Sun&#8217;s last 10 outings, Ayton is averaging 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds while Devin Booker is averaging 30.7 points for Phoenix. Additionally, Bookers&#8217; defense and assists will greatly be missed.<br \/><br \/>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/suns-monty-williams-wins-2022-nbca-coach-of-the-year\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Suns Coach Monty Williams<\/a>, he just made \u201ca few shots on the floor, but nothing didn\u2019t break a sweat or anything like that.\u201d Devin Booker will miss his second straight playoff game, as no.1 Phoenix shines into Sunday\u2019s Game 4 with a 2-1 lead on the series after winning over New Orleans at 114-111, Friday night. Moreover, Game 5 is critical for the Sun&#8217;s survival without Booker.<\/p>\r\n<h3><strong>Booker Will Miss the First Round Due to His Hamstring Injury<br \/><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/suns-news-devin-booker-injury-update-does-not-bode-well-for-phoenix\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Suns made an announcement<\/a> on Thursday that All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker will miss the remainder of their first-round series against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/04\/19\/nba-teams-that-can-make-that-next-leap\/\" target=\"_self\">New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>. Another update has been provided on Booker\u2019s progress and at the moment, things aren\u2019t looking very good for the shooting guard because of his health issue. In short, Booker will be out in Round 1 of the playoff series.<br \/><br \/>Despite Devin Booker&#8217;s hamstring injury, the Phoenix Suns stand optimistic to move forward even with a Booker-less lineup. Meanwhile, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Paul<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aytonde01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Center DeAndre Ayton<\/a><\/strong> scored a total of 56 points with each delivering 28 in their recent win over the Pelicans. It was Ayton\u2019s career-high score along with 17 boards off the glass that led to their victory over the Pelicans. The dynamic duo stood out with Paul facilitating plays and Ayton controlling the boards.<\/p>\r\n<h3><strong>Chris Paul&#8217;s Leadership Traits<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p><br \/>As for Paul, he is just as smooth as silk with his veteran moves. His teammates found it easier with the brilliant point guard resulting in building up play-by-play throughout the match. The leadership traits of Chris Paul are what the team needs right now and he is living up to them. On top of these, The Phoenix Suns have a formidable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.ph\/nba\/team\/depth\/_\/name\/phx\/phoenix-suns\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">depth chart<\/a> that is enough to beat opponents in the playoffs in the absence of Booker.<br \/><br \/>Can the Phoenix Suns survive without Devin Booker? Yes, they can. They will have to if they want to outshine the rest of the teams in the Western Conference and consequently see the Suns to the Finals of the NBA 2021-2022 Championships. In other words, other players on the team must step up to compensate for Booker&#8217;s absence.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Main Photo <a id=\"-InvwTOrQ6tsCw9rkPZF2g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1332080820\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'-InvwTOrQ6tsCw9rkPZF2g',sig:'iJ_9Fc4EFFovbA-_o87lCGNqGc1Kw_sJWsBtnr-fPi4=',w:'594px',h:'413px',items:'1332080820',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Phoenix Suns led the Western Conference teams with a 64-18 win\/loss tally in the Western Conference. The Suns clinched the best win record and were healthy coming into the playoffs until Shooting Guard Devin Booker&#8217;s hamstring injury in the third quarter of their Game 2 resulted in their loss in Phoenix, Tuesday night. Can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4179,"featured_media":47079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1608,62,33],"tags":[229,1419,352,1765],"class_list":["post-47025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suns","category-basketball","category-nba","category-pelicans","tag-chris-paul","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-devin-booker","tag-monty-williams"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}