Devin Booker Starts For Phoenix, But So What? Pelicans Lead 58-48 At Halftime

NEW ORLEANS - The much-anticipated return of Phoenix Suns' guard Devin Booker happened Thursday night at the Smoothie King Center.

Booker started after missing the last three games of the Western Conference opening round series of the NBA Playoffs with a strained right hamstring.

But it has not mattered so far. Booker scored just two points with three rebounds and two assists in 13 minutes as his team trailed 58-48 at the half. Booker was 1 of 4 from the field and 0 of 3 from three-point range with one turnover.

Phoenix leads the series 3-2. Should New Orleans win Thursday night, Game 7 will be Saturday in Phoenix.

Booker's only basket was a jumper from 16 feet to put the Suns up, 11-4, with 9:03 to play in the first quarter. The Pelicans came back from that and took an 18-17 lead with 4:36 to go in the first quarter. The opening period ended tied at 28-28.

New Orleans outscored Phoenix 9-0 from the 4:18 mark of the second quarter to 3:16 remained to take its biggest lead of the game at 50-40 and stretched that to 54-42.

Deandre Ayton led Phoenix with 12 points at the half, and Chris Paul had 10. C.J. McCollum led New Orleans with 13 points, and Brandon Ingram had 12.

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Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.