PHOENIX — As Jalen Williams‘ jump shot swished through the net to tie the score with 8.2 seconds remaining, Devin Booker felt a sense of calm.
He knew he’d get the ball after the timeout and the chance to have the last word in Sunday’s matchup with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Been here before,” Booker said after hitting the winning step-back 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds remaining in the Phoenix Suns‘ 108-105 victory. “In my imagination and workouts in the summer, it always come down to moments like that. So, I felt like I’ve been here before.”
Booker has plenty of experience in similar situations. It was his ninth career go-ahead bucket in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime. According to ESPN Research, only DeMar DeRozan (11) has made more such shots since Booker entered the league in 2015-16.
On Sunday, Booker hit his latest winner on an isolation against Alex Caruso, one of the league’s premier perimeter defenders.
“I assume they liked the matchup that they had on them,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said. “We liked who had the basketball and the space he was able to have.”
Booker, who finished with 24 points, caught the inbounds pass just across the half-court line and dribbled to the Suns’ logo in the middle of the floor before attacking. He crossed over right to left between his legs, took one hard dribble to the left and launched the step-back jumper over a tight contest from Caruso and a late double-team from Luguentz Dort.
“You can’t get to the point on the road where you’re giving an All-Star, All-NBA caliber player a chance to win the game,” Caruso said.
The only flaw in Booker’s execution was that he wanted to leave no time on the clock after the shot. Oklahoma City’s Ajay Mitchell missed a rushed 3 at the buzzer to seal the win for the Suns.
“We’ll take it,” Booker said.
It was a statement win for the Suns (21-14) against the defending champions. Phoenix lost its first two matchups with Oklahoma City (30-6), including a 49-point loss without Booker in the NBA Cup quarterfinals — the most lopsided game in the league this season.
“Obviously, they’re everybody’s target,” Booker said. “Those are the champs, and they are seasoned. They’re a really good team, so that’s who you want to match yourself up against. And we all believed in it.”
On Sunday night, the Suns rallied from an 18-point deficit to give Booker the chance to hit the winner.
“They play hard. They play together,” said Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was held to 25 points on 8-of-22 shooting. “In this league, when you play hard and play together every night, you give yourself a chance. And then you add the talent and the personnel — they’re a good team.”
Reserve guard Jordan Goodwin played a starring role in Phoenix’s comeback, scoring a career-high 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including 8-of-13 from 3-point range. He repeatedly took advantage of the attention Oklahoma City’s top-ranked defense paid to Booker, who found Goodwin on four of his nine assists and helped set up two other Goodwin buckets.
“A lot of the corner 3s that Goody got were because our superstar passes the basketball,” Ott said. “Just the unselfishness of the group starts with the best player. … To be able to continue to make the right play empowers his teammates. He continues to make the right play, and at the end of the night, the ball’s going to come to him.”
