LOS ANGELES — LeBron James and the Lakers were more physical. Far more physical. All night. They came out in the second half of Game 3 Thursday and started attacking the paint, taking it right to the Suns.
The Suns couldn’t match that physicality (except for Deandre Ayton).
“There was a segment in the second half where it was just paint drive after paint drive…” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “Give them credit. They were physical the whole night. They attacked the paint the whole night. We just didn’t give them a ton of resistance.”
As the game got deep into the fourth quarter and Phoenix couldn’t close the gap, Suns grew frustrated with the Lakers’ physicality.
That’s when Devin Booker shoved Lakers’ guard Dennis Schroder while Schroder was in the air and defenseless. Booker was given a Flagrant II and ejected for the play, which was the right call.
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“That wasn’t a basketball play,” Schroder said after the game. “In the regular season, that’s probably a suspension as well.”
It probably will not be a suspension this time but Booker almost certainly will be fined by the league.
Booker and the Suns need to control their frustration and find a way to counter the Lakers’ physicality by Game 4 on Sunday, or it is going to be a rough plane right back to Phoenix.
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Watch Devin Booker get ejected for mid-air shove of Dennis Schroder originally appeared on NBCSports.com