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Kevin Durant was a late scratch for what would have been his Suns home debut on Wednesday with a sprained left ankle after spraining the field during a previous drill at the starting position.
“He’s in good spirits,” said Suns All-Star Devin Booker. “That’s all I care about. The rehabilitation process starts now.”
Sources told The Republic that Durant was in trouble when he left the ring before the media was available after Phoenix’s 132-101 win over Oklahoma City. Sources told The Republic that Durant could miss several games as Phoenix plays their next game on Saturday against Sacramento (38-26) at home.
“The city has been waiting for it,” Booker, who scored 44 points in Wednesday’s win, said of anticipation for Durant’s first home game. “It’s a great day. We’re going to reschedule the party. I’m sure they’ll be back. The people who missed out on the night, I tried to give them a little something to make it better, but we’re still expecting it to debut here.”
Booker said he found out about Durant’s status right before he brought the team to court before a game.
“I saw him still sitting at the (practice) table,” Booker said. “It is what it is. An unfortunate event, but nothing serious. We’ll get it right.”
Chris Paul also noticed Durant at the training table.
“I didn’t know what was going on and I saw it on the table,” said Paul. “I know how much he loves to play and wants to play, but things happen.”
Durant was doing his usual pregame routine when he went for the base line drive, sprained his left ankle when he slid on the field in the paint and lost the ball before landing on his ass.
There was an immediate reaction to the fall from the crowd watching.
The cleaning crew immediately cleaned the area after Durant woke up. The 13-time All-Star and two-time Finalist rose slowly, went to tie his left shoe, continued his workout and headed back to the locker room.
He wasn’t in pain and showed no facial expressions of pain as he continued to practice, but Durant didn’t play in the game.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how he responds to treatment,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “We’ll probably get more photos just to make sure everyone is on the same page.”
The next two games for Phoenix will be on Saturday against Sacramento and on Monday against the defending NBA champion Golden State.
Durant won two NBA titles (2017-18) with the Warriors.
“It’s tough, but you look around the league, even today, I think Luka (Doncic) is out today, Brandon Ingram,” said Booker, as Doncic strained his left groin in the third quarter of the Mavericks-Pelicans game and didn’t. He returned while Ingram suffered a sprained right ankle and did not play in the second half.
“It’s just unfortunate, things you can’t control, especially how Kev was. He was just going through pre-game practice. Control what we can control. The situation happened.”
Booker recalls sustaining an ankle injury while practicing in the summer.
“He goes full speed on every drill he does,” Booker said of Durant. “Things like that can happen. I thought he slipped at first, but upon watching the video, he (his left ankle) turned.”
Durant averaged 26.7 points in his three games with the Suns (37-29), who won all three games. He scored 37 points in Sunday’s win over Dallas hitting the game-winner with 12.4 seconds left in the game.
With a history of injuries, Durant suffered a right MCL sprain on January 8 in Miami. The Suns traded Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks, and a selective trade to Brooklyn for TJ Warren and Durant before the February 8 trade deadline.
Durant almost missed two months before making his Suns debut last week in Charlotte.
Do you have an opinion about the current position of the sun? Reach out to Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] Or call him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @employee.
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