BBNBA: Devin Booker drops 43, Tyler Herro leads Heat over Knicks
A very busy Wednesday night around the NBA. Devin Booker and Tyler Herro lead the way in a packed BBNBA report.
Booker goes for 43 in Suns win
Hope you had your pocketbooks out for last night’s Suns-Jazz game. Without Rudy Gobert or Donovan Mitchell, the Jazz were somehow still favored by two against a Phoenix team that had both Chris Paul and Devin Booker healthy.
Booker punted any projections of a Utah win out the window by scoring 43 points on 16-28 shooting. With Deandre Ayton out, he also chipped in on the glass by grabbing 12 rebounds.
He capped off his best outing of the season with a late dagger (below) to seal the deal. Can’t imagine very many — if any — guys 6-foot-5 or shorter have recorded 43 points and 12 rebounds in the same game so far this year.
Check out his full highlight reel below:
Kentucky Heat outduel Kentucky Knicks
The Knicks had another one of those bizarre plus/minus nights. Their entire starting lineup ended in the negative. Julius Randle alone finished with a baffling -34 in just 27 minutes of play.
On the contrary, all eight Knick substitutes recorded positive plus/minus numbers. Including Immanuel Quickley, who was +16 and scored 12 points while dishing out seven assists in the Knicks’ second straight loss.
The home-team Miami squad continues to find themselves on the right side of the scoreboard by whatever means necessary and with whichever players are available.
Tyler Herro was available and excellent in the win off the bench. The Bucket led Miami in minutes and hit his season-average on the nose with 21 points, six rebounds and four assists. After 10 days off due to COVID, Tyler seemed to shed any rust immediately.
Bam Adebayo had a funky stat line for Miami. He only scored a third of his season average with six points but grabbed eight rebounds and dished out 11 assists. Always the multi-tool player, Bam’s passing continues to be such an underrated part of his game.
Historic Hornets Performance!
The Charlotte Hornets set practically every scoring record in franchise history last night.
The 158 points and franchise record for points in a game are nice, but of heightened importance is the win over the Indiana Pacers.
PJ Washington was a small contributor in the record-breaking evening. He was his usual self, scoring nine points while making 3-5 shots and working within the team as a defender, passer and rebounder.
Though the Pacers fell in triumphant fashion, Isaiah Jackson is finally earning some major minutes for Indy while the Turner-Sabonis starting frontcourt is sidelined. Jackson set a season-high in points against Golden State last week and set another one on Wednesday with a 17-point performance that featured 6-6 made free throws and 5-9 field goal shooting.
Other NBA Notes
Boogie with his best game as a Nugget, BUT… He had 13 points in 13 minutes of play off the bench in his most productive outing in a Nugget uniform, but DeMarcus Cousins just couldn’t help himself. Boogie lambasted a referee following a traveling call he disagreed with and was ejected from the game early in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, the disagreement is a small bump after a solid start in Denver.
Keldon Johnson stays hot from deep. February is five days away and Keldon Johnson remains third in the NBA in three-point shooting at 44.2%. Yesterday’s 18-point performance kept him on pace as he converted four of his nine triple tries.
Statistics
| Player | Result | Points | FG(3PA) | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | Turnovers | Minutes | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devin Booker (PHO) | 105-97 W @ UTA | 43 | 16-28 (2-6) | 12 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 40 | +18 |
| Tyler Herro (MIA) | 110-96 W vs. NYK | 21 | 6-`13 (3-6) | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 33 | -10 |
| Keldon Johnson (SAS) | 118-110 L vs. MEM | 18 | 7-16 (4-9) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 36 | -11 |
| Isaiah Jackson (IND) | 158-126 L vs. CHA | 17 | 5-9 (1-1) | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 24 | -24 |
| Eric Bledsoe (LAC) | 111-102 W @ ORL | 13 | 5-14 (2-7) | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 26 | +13 |
| DeMarcus Cousins (DEN) | 124-118 W @ BKN | 13 | 4-10 (2-3) | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 35 | +6 |
| Immanuel Quickley (NYK) | 110-96 L @ MIA | 12 | 4-9 (2-5) | 3 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 22 | +16 |
| Julius Randle (NYK) | 110-96 L @ MIA | 11 | 5-12 (0-3) | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 27 | -34 |
| PJ Washington (CHA) | 158-126 W @ IND | 9 | 3-5 (0-2) | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 18 | +4 |
| Bam Adebayo (MIA) | 110-96 W vs. NYK | 6 | 3-7 (0-0) | 8 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 31 | +18 |
| Rajon Rondo (CLE) | 115-99 W vs. MIL | 5 | 2-8 (1-5) | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 20 | +3 |
| Brandon Boston Jr. (LAC) | 111-102 W @ ORL | 5 | 2-3 (1-1) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | -14 |
| De’Aaron Fox (SAC) | 121-104 L @ ATL | DNP – Ankle | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Today in the NBA
7:30 p.m. (TNT) Lakers (Davis, Monk) @ 76ers (Maxey)
10:00 p.m. (TNT) Timberwolves (Towns, Vanderbilt) @ Warriors
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