MEXICO CITY—Devin Booker said he wanted to make the most of his visit to Mexico City. He did.
The 20-year-old Booker scored a career-high 39 points for the second game in a row and the Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs, 108-105, on Saturday in the fifth regular-season game in the country.
Booker, whose grandfather is from Mexico, was 12-of-22 from the field. He also had 39 points on Thursday night in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the Suns’ Mexican opener.
“I’m proud of the team overall, we bounced back after what happened the other night against Dallas, we play against a really good team like the Spurs and we came out with a close win,” Booker said. “We are seeing beauty in the struggle. We played real well.”
Booker has 13 30 point-games in his two-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career.
“Devin Booker does not want to leave Mexico, he’s averaging 39 points, so he wants to play Utah on Monday,” Suns Coach Earl Watson said. “I’ m excited for Devin, he’s only 20 years old and he won’t be 21 until October, so we are very excited about his progression and everything that he’s doing.”
Kawhi Leonard had 38 points for the Spurs. They lost for the second time in their last three games.
“The Suns did a great job of being aggressive for 48 minutes they clearly played very competitively as it was evidence by their 26 or so second-chance points they got and we exacerbated with 20 points off our turnovers,” Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said.
Booker made two baskets to give the Suns the lead in the last minute, including a dunk off a break with Bledsoe that made it 106-103. Leonard made two free throws to get San Antonio within one. PJ Tucker made two free throws for Phoenix, and the Spurs’ Danny Green missed an open three-pointer to seal the win for Phoenix.
Phoenix is the first team to play two regular-season games in the same season south of the border.
Also on Saturday, it was the LA Clippers 113, LA Lakers 97; Chicago 107, New Orleans 99; Washington 109, Philadelphia 93; and Utah 114, Orlando 107.
In Los Angeles DeAndre Jordan scored 24 points on 12-of-13 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers shot 52 percent to cruise past the Lakers on Saturday.
Jordan had 21 rebounds and Chris Paul added 20 points and 13 assists to help the Clippers improve to 6-0 in 2017. They are off to their best start since going 7-0 to begin 1974, when the franchise was located in Buffalo. Their streak is the longest active one in the NBA.
Jordan Clarkson scored 21 points for the Lakers.
Jimmy Butler scored 28 points in his return from the flu, while Dwyane Wade had 17 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter in Chicago’s victory over New Orleans.
Butler returned after missing two games, and had 19 points in the first half. Taj Gibson added 15 points and 16 rebounds to help the Bulls snap a three-game losing streak.
Anthony Davis had 36 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks for New Orleans.
Gordon Hayward scored 23 points to help Utah beat Orlando, a victory tempered by the loss of Rodney Hood to what looked like a serious knee injury with 2:54 remaining.
On a fast break after Rudy Gobert blocked Nikola Vucevic’s shot, Hood was hurt when his right knee buckled as he went up for a lay-up. Hood screamed in pain and clutched the knee immediately upon falling.
Gobert added 19 points and 19 rebounds for Utah. Hood had 14 points. Elfrid Payton had a career-high 28 points and added nine rebounds and nine assists for Orlando.
Image credits: AP