Phoenix Suns: 3 keys to staying alive this postseason

How the Phoenix Suns can survive in the NBA playoffs: Devin Booker needs to score and score some more

Newsflash: Devin Booker is a prolific scorer. He’s as pure as there is in the entire NBA when it comes to creating his own shot. He’s ninth in the per-game scoring among players in the playoffs (28.0). That feels like what a star should be putting up in an effort to keep his team afloat.

But that’s at first blush. Look closer, and you’ll see that Booker is shooting significantly below his regular-season average in all regards. His field goal percentage has dipped from 48.4 to 41.9; he’s seen a drop from three, 34 percent to 28.6; and his effective field goal percentage has plummeted from 53.3 to 45.7. He’s shooting much more from the free-throw line — 5.9 attempts versus 10 in the playoffs — so his scoring has remained profuse, but at a cost.

His passing, however, could be the key. The Lakers, one of the league’s top defensive teams throughout the regular season, even when they didn’t have LeBron James or Anthony Davis available, know to focus on deterring Booker from creating his own shot. Though that effort is often a fool’s errand, when successful, Booker should look to create for his teammates at a much higher clip. So far in the playoffs, he has — when juxtaposed with the regular season, that is (5.9 assists, up from 4.3). Still, there’s room for improvement.

Through the first three games of this series, Booker has assisted on an average of 25 percent of his team’s shots. Per Cleaning the Glass, his game-high assist percentage of 33.3 came in Game 1, perhaps not coincidentally the Suns’ lone win thus far in the series. And though that high (and average) are better than his season assist percentage of 20 percent, he can do a bit more in terms of giving his teammates opportunities to score at will. He’ll have to take care of the ball, too, as he’s turned it over 14 times in three games, an inexcusable clip.

But to his credit, Booker has mostly done an effective job navigating tighter coverage and finding open teammates, whether they reside in the paint or alone on the wing. These tight windows that Booker looks to pass through are no picnic; he seems to feast on them regardless.

If the Suns were able to capitalize on these opportunities as efficiently and frequently as they do in the above compilation, this series could feasibly be entering a win-or-go-home game for the Lakers. Somehow, though, the passing on Booker’s end, while vital, has been the (relatively) easy part.