As a sportscaster and play-by-play announcer for several NBA teams over the years, Steve Albert had seen hundreds of games, won and lost. However, Devin Booker‘s 70-point night against the Boston Celtics stands out because of the circumstances surrounding it.
According to Albert, both the Celtics and the Phoenix Suns, Booker’s team, were not acting like they were supposed to.
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“People don’t talk about this,” Albert told Matt Petersen of NBA.com. “That night, if you went into the locker room corridor at TD Garden after the game, you wouldn’t know who won and who lost. In the Suns locker room, they were jubilantly celebrating, pouring water over Devin’s head, posting pictures of Devin holding an homage to Wilt’s 100-point game with a hand-written 70-point sign.
“It was like they won the NBA championship, the noise coming from that locker room was that loud,” added Albert back in the 2017 interview.
Booker dropped 70
The Suns actually lost by 10 that night, 130-120. Phoenix finished the West’s worst record that year, so they were not playing for much except a spot in the draft lottery. Meanwhile, the Celtics sat at the top of the Eastern Conference, so the result was not really in question even before the opening tip.
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That said, after facing a double-digit deficit for most of the night, Suns coach Earl Watson decided to turn nothing into something. Booker already had 59 with only 1:58 left in the game, so how about they go on, have fun and help their budding star get to 70? And that’s precisely what they did.
Book made five quick points to add to his total, but the game clock was down to 44 seconds. To extend the game, Watson instructed his boys to intentionally foul the Celtics twice and called a timeout each time to draw up a play for Devin on the other end. Booker made six free throws to ultimately reach 70.
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“It’s basketball,” Watson unapologetically said after the game. “I’m not coming to any arena just happy to be there, trying to be liked. I don’t care about being liked. I really don’t care, to be honest with you. We’re coming in here, we’re trying to build something with this young group. If people don’t like us, why we build it, so what? Do something about it. Simple as that.”
“It’s about letting our kids be great. You got a problem with that? Do something. Simple as that,” he added.
The Celtics were not pleased
Phoenix celebrated the fact that Booker rewrote some details in the history books that night. The 6’6″ shooting guard was the youngest at the time to join the exclusive club of 70-point scorers, including Kobe Bryant and David Robinson.
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Meanwhile, the Celtics weren’t joining in on the fun. Some of them didn’t see the point in celebrating a forced milestone in a loss no less. More importantly, they must have felt a bit of regret letting the Suns get away with it.
“Then you walk into the Celtics locker room – and they won the game! – and it was very somber and sullen,” Albert recalled. “They’re all sitting in front of their lockers with their heads down because they gave up a huge lead. Brad Stevens was not happy. They almost blew the game. And they’re hearing the Suns celebrate on the other side of the corridor. It was surreal. It was a real study in psychology.”
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Then-Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas thought it was weird for the Suns to do all those things but conceded that Booker “played a hell of a game.” At the end of the day, it is what it already is.
For the Suns, it was about giving their young star a moment to remember in an otherwise lost season. For the Celtics, it was about protecting standards, even in victory. Both perspectives hold weight, which makes basketball a game of narratives as well as numbers.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 14, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.