Devin Booker broke his nose in three places during WCF Game 2 incident

(Photo by Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Playing with a broken nose, a masked Devin Booker and his Phoenix Suns didn’t blame the loss on his injury.

On Thursday night, the Suns dropped Game 3 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals playoff matchup against the Los Angeles Clipper, 106-92, which brings the series lead to 2-1 in favor of Phoenix. During Game 2 the other night, Booker’s nose connected with the head of Clippers guard Patrick Beverley which immediately required Booker to make his way back to the locker room as blood leaked from his face. He would return for the fourth quarter of that game, but with stitches in his bent nose.

The diagnosis following the Game 2 Suns’ victory? A broken nose in three places, according to ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, in which doctors reset Booker’s nose to help greatly reduce the swelling.

Davin Booker told me his nose was in fact broken in THREE places but that doctors reset it yesterday & the swelling has gone down significantly. Still, he will wear a mask tonight. I asked if the mask limited his peripheral vision; he told me “all I need to see is the basket.” 😎 pic.twitter.com/KV4HTAny6Q

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) June 25, 2021

Booker then channeled his inner Richard “Rip” Hamilton (or LeBron James or Kobe Bryant; take your pick of masked hoopers) in Game 3, sporting a clear mask throughout the entire game. He actually got the chance to speak with Hamilton prior to the game in order to get some advice about playing with a mask on. And even though the former Kentucky Wildcat took the loss while scoring just 15 points on 5-21 shooting, he didn’t blame the mask as a distraction.

“The nose feels fine,” Booker said. “We just lost the game.”

Per ESPN’s Stats and information research, this was just the third time in Booker’s entire NBA career that he scored 15 or fewer points while playing at least 40 minutes.

Booker also said he received eight shots of a numbing agent prior to his broken nose being popped back into place. He added that the doctors had to break the nose again so that they could “break it back in place.”

“That was probably the worst part,” Booker said about the numbing agents. “It’s a procedure that they usually say they put you under [anesthesia] for, but we had a flight out a couple hours later, so they just numbed it up — all over the place, it felt like.

“Like eight shots to numb it up and then they go in there and put it back — they break it again. They break it back in place.”

Game 4 is scheduled for Saturday night at 9:00 p.m. EST on ESPN. Will we see Booker back in the mask?