NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CLIPPERS VS. SUNS

June 26, 2021

Devin Booker

Phoenix Suns

Game 4: Postgame

Phoenix Suns - 84, Los Angeles Clippers - 80

Q. Nose doesn't look that bad, man. It's coming along.

DEVIN BOOKER: I appreciate that.

Q. I want to know what you learned about your teammates during that cold stretch. It was like five minutes, you couldn't get a bucket, you were stuck on 71. What did you learn about your teammates during that time?

DEVIN BOOKER: What we have been preaching all year, we have to rely on our defense. So I think both teams were stuck at 70 and 71 for a few minutes. I think we had a good couple opportunities. A lot of them rimmed in and rimmed out, but you just get back you play defense. You don't let your offense affect the way that you guard. So that's what we relied on all night.

I think it was an ugly game from beginning to end, honestly, if you're talking from a scoring aspect, but we dug in and got stops and it's the playoffs - any way you can come out with one.

Q. When did you decide you're going to ditch the mask?

DEVIN BOOKER: I just I think I took it off after I missed a layup. I said after the game if I get hit again, which you don't realize how much you get hit in the face until you take it off. But I can get surgery after the season.

I'm not blaming anything on the mask, but I haven't played basketball with a mask ever in my life. So it takes some getting used to and at that point in that time I didn't want it.

Q. I wanted to ask you, sitting there watching the end of that game, that had to be tough.

DEVIN BOOKER: Yeah, tough, because I know I let my team down in some aspects by grabbing some pretty cheap fouls early in the game, and you're not thinking about that early in the game, how it can affect the end. So you know that, and it's a learning lesson for me. And it's easier to learn after a win.

So go back, watch some film and just clean up the little mistakes, because if you want to win big, how we're trying to, I got to be out there for my team.

Q. CP3 just called you the oldest 24-year-old he's ever known. I think that's a compliment. What do you think it is about you, the way you grew up, the way you have spent these last six years in the league that has made you an old soul, as he put it?

DEVIN BOOKER: I would say just experiences. Like you said, just the way I grew up, having an older brother, wanting to hang out with him and his friends all the time. And then I moved to Mississippi with my dad, and I'm with him and his friends all the time. And those are the environments I've just been in. Those are the gyms I've been in and it's always been grown conversations. So even when I spent time with them guys, I listen more than I talk. So I just pick up the way people carry themselves. I was around some really good people growing up that they nurtured and taught me a lot.

Q. Do you not want to wear the mask the rest of the way then?

DEVIN BOOKER: I don't know. I haven't decided. Like I said, you don't realize how much you get hit in the face until you take it off. So I might have to go back to it. But at that time in that place I didn't want it on.

Q. One win away from the NBA Finals. Is there any sense as a group about this opportunity for Chris, can you verbalize what that means to this group?

DEVIN BOOKER: Like Chris said, I watch every game and that was before I was in the NBA. So I've been a fan of his for a long time, and I've learned so much from him this year, and I always talk about off the court how he carries himself, and he's just a true professional at every level at all times. So I have a lot of respect for him as a man, not even as a basketball player, just understanding how bad he wants this and how much time he's put into it, like you said, 16 years, that's a long time. And I think when we made the Western Conference Finals he's like, I've only been here the one time.

So we know how bad he wants it. Same with Coach Monty, I get that same feeling from him. Me and Deandre are sitting here, Mikal, it's our first time in here, you know. It's a little spoiled, but it came with a lot of work. But we definitely have his back.

Q. Broader question for you, you mentioned a couple times during the playoffs how during the summer you tried to simulate what this was going to feel like and tried to just mimic or put yourself in the right mindset or visualize. Like does that seem way easier said than done. So how did you do that and how do you feel like it's paying off now?

DEVIN BOOKER: Just imagination. While you're out there by yourself, obviously you can't mimic the crowd or everything that's going on, but you just, you're like a kid again, you just imagine yourself in those situations. You look up at the shot clock, you pretend it's winding down. So it's just little things that that's how you get the most out of your workouts. Me and my dad talk about it all the time, being efficient with your work. When you're in there taking every rep serious as if it is the playoffs or as if it is the Finals you get some really good workouts.

Q. Does it feel like it is? Even though I am in this situation for the first time, it feels familiar in a weird way?

DEVIN BOOKER: Yeah. Yeah, because at the end of the day it's basketball and I've watched a ton of playoffs. But like I say you can't mimic the crowd, the atmosphere, can't mimic picking up your sixth foul. That's frustrating, but as far as the game, yeah.

Q. Or how to set a screen with a broken nose?

DEVIN BOOKER: Exactly. (Laughing).

Q. You guys are one win away obviously from going to play for a NBA title. Do you let your mind go there just yet or what's the thought process after this one?

DEVIN BOOKER: We know what's on the table. We know what's there. We can't hide that. But we have kept the same mindset the whole playoffs and the whole regular season, honestly, is building this thing brick by break, game by game. So we're not looking too far ahead or saying who we're going to get in The Finals or anything like that but we definitely understand that if we win the next one we're headed to the NBA Finals.

Q. Talking to Tyson Chandler he said when you first came in the league, you were always asking him, what's it like in The Finals? What's it like getting to the Western Conference Finals? Do you remember any advice that he gave to you?

DEVIN BOOKER: Oh, yeah, I asked Tyson more than that. I asked pretty much everything. I asked him about the Olympics also. I credit -- I always credit my veterans, people talk about my situation that I was in and how it was unfair to me, but I always see the bright side in it and being able to develop a relationship with somebody like Tyson that has accomplished everything that I want to do in this league.

So I always leaned on him. I still do. That relationship's here forever. But he's also Chris in a way in their approach, you know, they don't get happy over the little things. They're in it to win big and that's the only thing that they want. He says once you get a taste of it, there's nothing else that you're going to want in the world. So trying to get there.

Q. What was the reaction when you showed up today and you saw DA wearing a shirt emblazoned with a photo of your face after you suffered the broken nose? What did that mean to you?

DEVIN BOOKER: Honestly I didn't see it until, I seen it on social media. I was on the same bus with him and I looked at him and he said, "I was hiding it from you on the bus I was sitting like this." And so obviously it's like a replica of Steve's moment, so that means a lot, man. That's my little big brother. We have a relationship that's bigger than basketball and it's taken time to develop it, and I'm so proud of him and the strides that he's taken and for him to honor me in that way, that's literally for real.

Q. The mental preparation, Monty mentioned earlier the physical preparation with the setup you have at your house. I imagine this was a stage of a season you were thinking about all the way back last summer when you were preparing your body. How do you feel physically right now this deep in your first postseason?

DEVIN BOOKER: I feel good, honestly. It does, it takes -- it's time consuming, taking care of your body. I have a whole routine and operation at my house with infrared sauna, light stim bed, so a whole bunch of things. And David Crewe on our training staff, we put a lot of time in. I tell him all the time, I talk to you and see you more than I even see my mom.

So we're always together and he's on the same page as us, he understands how important our health is, and he puts in the extra time and he spends a lot of time working on me.

Q. Deandre had nine offensive rebounds tonight and Monty was saying that he's one of the best he's ever seen at just going straight up over guys without fouling. How important was that for you guys in a game that you did shoot 36 percent overall and just kind of winning the margins like that?

DEVIN BOOKER: That's his nickname, "Dominator." He definitely earned that tonight in many ways and I heard Chris tell you guys about shootaround, just how animated he was saying, "This is my paint I'm protecting it tonight," and doing that on both ends. I know how it makes a team feel when you give up an offensive rebound. I think we gave up seven in the first quarter. Those aren't easy plays for a team when you guard a whole possession and a team gets a second chance, second-chance basket and it's hard to keep them off there. His stature, his build and just his motor. He works, he works. And I say it all the time, I think he's finally realizing how big and strong and how agile he can move, and it's paid off big for him. And us.

Q. Obviously he had that huge lob the other night, but what other kind of pivotal points have you seen in him that showed, hey, he's putting his game to another level?

DEVIN BOOKER: Oh, everything. Everything. He's brought it to a whole another level in this playoff from angles of screening to understanding the game, not understanding just who his matchup is but who they're guarding and what they like to do. You're going to see a lot of pick-and-rolls at him every single game, that's just the offense of the NBA. And just understanding tendencies of different players of not the ones that he's guarding. That usually takes a few years.

So him having to grow up on the fly and in this short amount of time is very impressive. But you see him putting in the time in off the floor. I don't know how much basketball he watched prior but he comes up to me about every game now and conversation that is we didn't have in the past and so I know he's tuned in, I know he's focused. Like Chris said earlier, Monty's so detail oriented that you have to be like that and understanding that little plays and understanding what people like to do can make or break a game. So that's really impressive with him.