Suns' Booker thinks he'll face Lakers, not Warriors, in West finals
Ever since the Golden State Warriors got back-to-back wins in their first-round playoff series against the Sacramento Kings, the vocal doubters who emerged after Golden State’s initial 2-0 deficit have mostly quieted down.
Tuesday, a new Dubs-skeptical voice emerged: Devin Booker. He didn’t mention the Warriors by name, but after an impressive 47-point performance to clinch the Phoenix Suns’ first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers, Booker had a rather telling comment about whom he expects to see in the later rounds of the playoffs.
“We stressed in the locker room; we didn’t want to go back to LA unless it was for the Western Conference finals,” Booker said after the game. “Just wanting to get it done.”
Of course, part of this was simply locker-room hype-up, as the Suns were down at halftime. It’s true that if they lost Tuesday’s game, they would have had to go back to Los Angeles for a Game 6.
That being said, with the Clippers now out, Booker thinks that his team’s opponent in the Western Conference finals will almost certainly be the Los Angeles Lakers, meaning that he not only thinks the LA-Memphis series is a foregone conclusion but also thinks the Warriors aren’t making it past the second round, even if they come back to beat the Kings.
That would be a bit of a departure from how FiveThirtyEight's model sees things. In the wake of their two wins at home, the Warriors’ chances of reaching the Western Conference finals are the highest among every team in the West not named the Nuggets, according to FiveThirtyEight.
There’s perhaps a reasonable explanation as to why he said Los Angeles. Booker is a diehard Kobe Bryant fan, so perhaps the Lakers are always going to be considered the best in his mind, especially since they employ a guy named LeBron James. Another possibility could be that Booker is ridiculously petty, still remembers his spat with Klay Thompson earlier this season and is intentionally leaving the Dubs off his mind's list of contenders.
Regardless, the Warriors would argue the doubt is good. Everyone was skeptical of the Warriors last year on their way to a championship. The doubt hasn't been as pervasive this time around — Golden State was the favorite heading into the Sacramento series — and they haven’t looked as good. Maybe nonbelievers like Booker are the secret sauce to success moving forward.
Source: SFGATE
