Devin Booker was over the moon to share his historic NBA moment with numerous family and friends after scoring 52 points for the Phoenix Suns in Monday's victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Suns star Booker recorded his fifth-highest scoring game of his career after posting 50+ against the Pelicans, bringing Phoenix within a game of No.6 New Orleans in the Western Conference.
With that monumental haul, Booker became the first NBA player since Wilt Chamberlain to score 50 points in three straight games against a single opponent.
"It means a whole lot," said Booker, who registered 52 against the Pelicans in January and 58 in December 2022.
"My family was in attendance for two of them. Any time you get named for something Wilt did – it's happened very few times in my career – you know you did something special."
Phoenix coach Frank Vogel lauded Booker's showing, having watched him record 52 points against New Orleans for the second time this year.
"There's something about playing in this building against this opponent," Vogel said. "[He] just really has a comfort zone here.
"To go for 50 three straight times against a single opponent, it just shows what kind of special player he is. Three times in a row is just incredible."
Kevin Durant added another 20 points, along with 19 for Jusuf Nurkic, as the Suns ran rampant in a 124-111 victory.
"It was like deja vu," Durant said of teammate Booker's exploits. "As it was happening, I couldn't believe he was doing it again."
Having already suffered from Booker's dominance previously, Pelicans coach Willie Green credited the Suns man but left no excuses for his team.
"He hit some shots that we gave him, and he also hit some tough shots," Green said. "We have to do better.
"There's no excuse to get 50, put on you twice [in a season]. Quite frankly, we were soft-guarding him.
"We just had a soft mentality when it came to being physical with him, and he's a great player, and you can't allow him to be comfortable."
Kerr demands improvements from Team USA as Olympic opener looms
United States coach Steve Kerr wants to see higher levels of intensity from his team as their Olympics campaign approaches.
Kerr was unhappy with the lacklustre displays from his side in their warm-ups against Germany and South Sudan.
Germany led 71-68 at the end of the third quarter before LeBron James conjured up 11 points in the final four minutes to give the USA a 92-88 win, while South Sudan were 20 seconds away from pulling off one of the biggest shocks in basketball history, before eventually falling to a 101-100 loss.
The USA face a dangerous Serbia side featuring reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic on Sunday, and Kerr is adamant that improvements are required if they are to win a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
He said: "It's got to be 40 minutes of force and attention and focus, and we can't let teams outplay us effort and energy-wise like we did the other night against Germany, like we did against South Sudan.
“We have another level. I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it's a collaboration, always.
"We can show them, 'Let's do this, let's do that. Let's learn personnel.'
"We got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters, all that stuff. So that's where we can help them. Where they can help themselves is just effort and energy play after play, after play. This is different."
Kerr is a four-time NBA champion as a coach, and was part of the triumphant Olympics team in Tokyo in 2021, but the Golden State Warriors boss knows the experience of the Games will only be enhanced if the USA were to come out on top again.
"This should be one of the great experiences of our lives. But the best way to make it an incredible experience is to win a gold medal," he said.
After facing Serbia, the USA will once again go up against South Sudan, this time in a competitive format, before ending the group stage with a match against Puerto Rico.
Durant warns Team USA 'everybody is a contender' in Olympic basketball tournament
Kevin Durant has warned Team USA they will not have an easy ride through the basketball tournament at the Paris Olympic Games, declaring: "Everybody is a contender".
The United States will go in search of a fifth straight men's basketball gold in the French capital, where they open their Group C campaign against Serbia on Sunday.
After that meeting with Nikola Jokic and company, the star-studded USA team featuring Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid and a host of other NBA stars take on South Sudan and Puerto Rico.
With Steve Kerr having so much talent at his disposal, the roster has been compared to that of the 1992 'Dream Team', who took gold in Barcelona behind the efforts of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen and other great names.
However, at a press conference ahead of Team USA's 2024 opener, Curry reminded reporters that the class of 1992 only faced nine other active NBA players.
Durant is expecting a much tougher assignment this year, responding to Curry by saying: "Everybody is a contender. Everyone is here for a reason.
"We're playing against 65 or 64 NBA players in Paris. So you know they're the best in the world."
Asked to identify the main players to watch from other nations, the Phoenix Suns forward said: "Giannis [Antetokounmpo] or Jokic."
While Durant adopted a cautious tone, Golden State Warriors star Curry was more bullish regarding the USA's gold medal hopes.
Quizzed on who he was most excited about facing, Curry simply said: "Whoever's in the gold medal game."
Knicks, head coach Thibodeau agree to three-year contract extension
The New York Knicks and head coach Tom Thibodeau have agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2027-28 season.
New York went 50-32 last season to earn the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference before losing to the Indiana Pacers in the semi-finals of the play-offs.
The Knicks were also ousted in the East semis in 2022-23 and reached the play-offs during Thibodeau’s first season in 2021-22, when he won his second NBA Coach of the Year award.
Prior to 2021-22, New York’s previous post-season appearance came in 2013.
The Knicks have gone 175-143 over the last four seasons under Thibodeau, who earned his first NBA Coach of the Year award in 2011 as a rookie head coach with the Chicago Bulls.
The 66-year-old Thibodeau owns a 527-389 record in 12 seasons as a head coach with Chicago, the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York.
His teams have gone 38-47 in the post-season, and Thibodeau’s only appearance in the conference finals came in his rookie head coach season.
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