Devin Booker reaches for the ball in Wednesday’s loss. (Associated Press) NBA players are competitive enough to want to fight for a victory even when that result seems incredibly unlikely. At some point, though, the realization that a loss is inevitable has to set in. Like, say, when your team is down 120-104 with only 17 seconds remaining in regulation. No one is coming back from that deficit.
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Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker must have realized where things were headed on Wednesday night, because he took an ejection in stride in exactly that scenario in his team’s road loss to the Denver Nuggets. After finishing a short shot and drawing a foul from Kenneth Faried, Booker and his defender were each tagged with technical fouls following a short dust-up. Booker had already earned a technical, though, so he had to leave with an ejection. He didn’t seem that upset about it:

For those keeping track, the somewhat confused Booker left by giving the referee a thumbs up and signing an autograph for a young fan on his way through the tunnel. He did it all with a smile on his face, although it’s unclear if he was doing it in disbelief or because he wasn’t too upset to leave the court. In either case, we admire his positivity.
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Sadly, Booker had few reasons to smile based on the Suns’ performance. Their 120-104 loss dropped their record to 3-9 on the season and made it five losses in their last six outings. On the plus side, the Nuggets were able to snap a four-game losing streak with their first home win of the year.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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