I’m not sure how cognizant Devin Booker is of the fact that he literally cannot drain more than six threes in a game.
Nine times in his four-year career, Booker has drained six three-pointers in a single contest. In several of those games, the fifth three — if not the sixth — went down in the third quarter. But never once has he nailed a seventh.
On Monday night against the Sixers, Booker had made six of 11 threes before the fourth quarter began. But in the fourth, he went 4-4 inside the arc and 0-4 from three, finishing with 37 points in a furious finish that came up just short of a win over the Sixers.
You’re talking about the guy who is fifth in the league in fourth-quarter scoring this season (7.3 per game), making 45 percent of his shots and 33 percent of this threes. He’s made nine threes in 12 fourth quarters this season, but none have put him over six for the game.
He singlehandedly closed out the opening night win over Dallas with his shooting, then later the win over Memphis.
Booker is the center of the universe for the Phoenix Suns, averaging 23 points per game this season to go along with 7.4 assists. Since he became a full-time starter in 2016, Booker is the league’s 14th highest scorer (23 per game).
Does it seem unusual for a player to drain seven threes in game?
It’s actually not. Since Devin Booker was drafted in 2015, we have had 82 different players have drained seven or more threes in a game.
On an individual level, Stephen Curry has hit seven-plus threes a whopping 43 times all by himself. Klay Thompson: 20. Eric Gordon and Damian Lillard: 10.
82 players have done it at least once.
Devin Booker: zero.
Do I think that will continue? Uh, no. It just happens to be an interesting thing I’ve noticed over the past year, where Booker looks unstoppable but never drains more than six threes no matter how many he jacks.
Over that time, he ranks 23rd in total games of players with 6+ threes (9). He’s 15th on the list of players with five or more threes.
Booker is one of the best scorers in the game. He can score from basically anywhere on the court. He won the three-point contest at All-Star Weekend last spring, and came in third in the same contest his rookie year. He scored 70 points in a single game. He’s had 39 games of 30-plus points.
I know this is random.
But all I can think is that we haven’t yet seen the very best of Devin Booker. Watch out, league.