{"id":1898502,"date":"2026-04-23T12:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1898502"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:05:22","slug":"suns-devin-booker-lashes-out-at-refs-after-technical-foul-in-game-2-loss-to-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1898502","title":{"rendered":"Suns\u2019 Devin Booker lashes out at refs after technical foul in Game 2 loss to Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 The frustration had been building for Devin Booker. Late Wednesday night, the Phoenix Suns guard finally let it out.<\/p>\n

Following a 120-107 loss to Oklahoma City in Game 2<\/a> of this Western Conference first-round series, Booker was asked if he had received an explanation for a technical foul he received in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

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Booker said he never got one. As he dribbled near the sideline, he bumped into Oklahoma City big man Jaylin Williams. With momentum taking him out of bounds, Booker blindly flipped the ball behind his back onto the court. The ball struck Williams.<\/p>\n

Officials called a foul on Williams. Booker said he then heard Oklahoma City guard Alex Caruso tell officials to give him a technical foul, presumably for throwing the ball at Williams. They did.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn my 11 years, I haven\u2019t called a ref out by name, but James (Williams) was terrible tonight, through and through,\u201d Booker said in the postgame news conference. \u201cIt\u2019s bad for the sport, it\u2019s bad for the integrity of the sport. People are going to start thinking this is the WWE if they\u2019re not held responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Phoenix locker room, Dillon Brooks had a similar message, but for a different reason. In the fourth quarter, he was called for a foul that knocked Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou all should be interviewing the officials,\u201d Brooks said when asked about the play. \u201cThat should be a new thing in the NBA. Officials got to explain themselves. It\u2019s getting ridiculous, and you can see it starts getting fiery. And there\u2019s no control out there. And now they\u2019re just whistling on one side.\u201d<\/p>\n

This will not go over well. The Suns trail the top-seeded Thunder 2-0 in this best-of-seven series. They have been mostly uncompetitive, losing by 35 and 13 points, respectively. They have committed 17 and 21 turnovers. They have failed to slow Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n

And total fouls after two games are dead even, 43 apiece.<\/p>\n

The officials are not their biggest problem, but this is not new, especially when it comes to Booker.<\/p>\n

Although Booker this season attempted a career-best 8.1 free throw attempts per game \u2014 fifth most in the league \u2014 his teammates and others have long thought he does not get the same respect as other NBA stars. It\u2019s why Booker pleads his case with officials so much during games. He feels he has no other choice.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI know I haven\u2019t won a championship in this league, but I have been in it for 11 years now,\u201d Booker said Wednesday night. \u201cTo get to this point, to be treated like that, for me to even be saying something out loud, it\u2019s bad. \u2026 Whatever I get fined for, everybody can pull the clips and see where the frustration comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Devin Booker called out referee James Williams after Wednesday\u2019s game. \u201cHe was terrible tonight, through and through,\u201d Booker said. (Alonzo Adams \/ Imagn Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A five-time All-Star, Booker has earned the respect of his peers, mostly for playing the right way, making the extra pass and finding the open man. He was a star of the 2024 Paris Olympics for his willingness to be the role player Team USA desperately needed. Locally, he is Phoenix\u2019s career-scoring leader and the most popular athlete in the state.<\/p>\n

The only thing Booker has recently lacked is playoff success.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s loss marked his eighth consecutive playoff loss, the longest active streak among the game\u2019s top players. The average point margin for those losses is 18.6 points. Houston\u2019s Kevin Durant, Booker\u2019s former teammate in Phoenix, has lost seven playoff games in a row.<\/p>\n

This is not all Booker\u2019s fault. He has played for four head coaches during the losing streak. The first two playoff losses came under Monty Williams in 2023; the next four were under Frank Vogel in 2024. Mike Budenholzer failed to make the playoffs in 2025, and this season, Booker and the Suns have dropped their first two under Jordan Ott<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Breaking such a streak against a defensive-minded, physical team like Oklahoma City is difficult, especially when Phoenix hasn\u2019t played its best basketball since February. On Wednesday night, Booker rebounded a Brooks miss under the basket. He was all alone for an easy putback \u2014 until Oklahoma City 7-footer Chet Holmgren flew in at the last second and swatted his shot away.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Shai<\/p>\n
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\n Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder pull away to take Game 2 against Suns: Takeaways\n <\/div>\n
\n The Suns were more competitive Wednesday than they were in Game 1, but the Thunder proved to be too much in a Game 2 win.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Unlike most NBA teams, Oklahoma City has several versatile defenders they can use on Booker, including Caruso, Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace. There\u2019s no letup. On Wednesday night, the Thunder limited Booker to 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting. They forced him into five turnovers. Asked how many open shots he\u2019s gotten the last two games, Booker said two words: \u201cNot many.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not expecting to get any,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to use my gravity to generate better looks for my teammates, but at the same time, still be aggressive. Only getting 14 shots up while playing 40 minutes is definitely not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late Wednesday night, Ott had finished his media session before Booker and Brooks criticized the officials, but he also said he did not receive an explanation for Booker\u2019s technical foul. He thought Booker was trying to save the ball from going out of bounds. He hopes the Suns will be better as the series shifts to Phoenix. Game 3 is Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a playoff series \u2014 a lot of stuff happens,\u201d Ott said. \u201cWe can do a better job keeping our composure at times, to not extend their runs, especially in these environments. I thought we did a better job of that at times where it felt like everyone was against us, which is normal in an away arena.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 The frustration had been building for Devin Booker. Late Wednesday night, the Phoenix Suns guard finally let it out. Following a 120-107 loss to Oklahoma City in Game 2 of this Western Conference first-round series, Booker was asked if he had received an explanation for a technical foul he received in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1898502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1898502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1898502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1898502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1898502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}