44 points by Devin Booker not enough to beat Suns, Pistons surprisingly beat strong Oklahoma City

Devin Booker once again put on a shooting performance, but without much support from his star teammates, Phoenix fell short against Orlando. The worst team in the competition, Detroit, surprisingly took on a strong Oklahoma City.

Booker has been in a shooting slump lately

In the Orlando Magic vs Phoenix Suns (113:98), Devin Booker of Phoenix once again had a great shooting performance. He has already surpassed the 50-point mark once this season. However, just like his 62 point performance this season, tonight’s 44 points did not lead to a win.

He was on his own. As the other two star players in the Suns lineup didn’t play at all. Kevin Durant scored just 15 points and Bradley Beal fared even worse, scoring just 9 points. Booker had a great shooting game from the field. He made a full 17 of his 26 field goal attempts.

The Suns’ shooting woes were perfectly exploited by the Magic. Five players reached double figures in points, led by Paolo Bacher, who led the Orlando team with 26 points. It was the last quarter of the game that was the turning point, which the Orlando team won by 18 points, and Booker was also mired in shooting misery in this passage of the game, scoring only 2 points in this stretch. Orlando thus notched a valuable win and improved their playoff prospects with a 24-22 record.

Detroit scores a surprise win

The Detroit Pistons vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (120:104) was a big surprise, as the weakest team of this year’s season took on one of the best teams of this season.

The Pistons, who already have 40 defeats this season, surprisingly scored only their 6th win on their home court this year, as they managed to beat the Oklahoma City team, which entered this game with a 32-13 record, thus being the clear favorite. However, the team from Oklahoma was the favorite only in the first quarter of the game.

After halftime Detroit was already leading (70:61) and gradually increased the lead. Jaren Duren had a great performance, he had 22 points to go with 21 rebounds under the basket. He was a great substitute for the injured Pistons’ best scorer Cade Cunningham.

Shai Gilgeous – Alexander was the traditional top scorer for Oklahoma, who lived up to his reputation as the third best shooter of the season, scoring 31 points. However, it wasn’t enough for a ferocious performance from the Pistons. But at least for a moment, they experienced the exhilarating feeling of victory over a strong team. Considering that fans of this traditional team had to endure a horrendous streak of 26 straight losses.

Source: NBA