Suns’ Devin Booker Continues Dominance Over Pelicans

There isn’t a team in the NBA that Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker enjoys playing against more than the New Orleans Pelicans. With their homecourt less than two hours away from where he grew up, Booker always puts on a show in front of friends and family that attend the game.

On Monday night, it was yet another incredible performance by the Moss Point, Mississippi native. He scored 52 points in front of more than 40 friends and family, matching an impressive NBA record that Wilt Chamberlain held.

That was Booker’s third straight game against the Pelicans in which he has scored 50+ points. Chamberlain is the only other player in NBA history to achieve that feat against a single opponent. It was something that Booker was very proud of.

“Anytime you get named with Wilt, and it’s happened a few times in my career,” Booker said, “but you know you did something special.”

Back on January 19th in New Orleans, Booker scored 52 against the Pelicans as well. The first time he broke the 50-point plateau to begin this streak was on December 17th, 2022 when he poured in 58.

Another impressive mark that Booker has set is the 162 points in the last three matchups against New Orleans being the most in a three-game span against any opponent in the last 50 NBA seasons. The previous mark was held by James Harden, who had 158 points in a three-game stretch against the Memphis Grizzlies.

“I just feel like I’m playing the same way,” he said. “I mean, the crib is close. I have a lot of family in attendance. I grew up coming here. It’s the first NBA arena I went to. So there’s some history here.”

Booker came out on fire, staking the Suns in an important game to an early lead with 24 points in the first quarter. He ended the first half with 37 and the Suns were comfortably ahead by 20 points. 

They rode that to the end, coming away with a 124-111 victory. It was a massive win as they are now 44-31 on the season. The victory puts them only one game behind the Pelicans for sixth place in the Western Conference for the last spot outside of the NBA Play-In Tournament.