Kevin Durant was a late scratch for what would’ve been his Suns home debut Wednesday with a left ankle sprain after twisting it on the court during his pregame workout at Footprint Center.
“He’s in good spirits,” Suns All-Star Devin Booker said. “That’s all that matters to me. The rehab process starts now.”
Sources told The Republic that Durant was in a boot as he left the arena before media availability following Phoenix’s 132-101 win over Oklahoma City. Durant could miss multiple games, sources told The Republic as Phoenix plays its next game Saturday against Sacramento (38-26) at home.
“The city has been waiting on this,” said Booker, who scored 44 points in Wednesday’s win, about the anticipation for Durant’s first Suns home game. “It’s a big day. We’ll reschedule the party. I’m sure they’ll be back. People who missed out tonight, I tried to give them a little something to make it better, but we’re still anticipating his debut here.”
Booker said he found out about Durant’s status right before the team took the court before the game.
“I saw him still sitting on the (training) table,” Booker said. “It is what it is. Unfortunate event, but nothing serious. We’ll get him back right.”
Chris Paul also noticed Durant on the training table.
“I didn’t know what was going on and I saw him on the table,” Paul said. “I know how much he loves to play and wanted to play, but stuff happens.”
Durant was doing his usual pregame routine when he went to drive baseline, twisted his left ankle as he slipped on the court in the paint and lost the ball before falling down on his backside.
There was an immediate reaction to the fall from the fans watching the situation.
The team clean up crew immediately cleaned the area after Durant got up. The 13-time All-Star and two-time finals MVP rose slowly, went to tie his left shoe, continued his workout and went back to the locker room.
He didn’t appear in pain nor show any facial expressions of being in pain in continuing his workout, but Durant didn’t play in the game.
“We just have to wait and see how he responds to treatment,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “We’ll probably get some more imaging just to make sure everybody is on the same page.”
Phoenix’s next two games are Saturday against Sacramento and Monday at defending NBA champion Golden State.
Durant won back-to-back NBA titles (2017-18) with the Warriors.
“It’s tough, but you look around the league, even today, I think Luka (Doncic) went out today, Brandon Ingram,” said Booker as Doncic had a left thigh strain in the third quarter of the Mavericks-Pelicans game and didn’t return while Ingram suffered a right ankle sprain and didn’t play in the second half.
“It’s just unfortunate, things you can’t control, especially Kev’s. He was just going through pregame workout. Control what we can control. The situation happened.”
Booker recalls suffering an ankle injury while working out in the summer.
“He goes full speed in every workout that he does,” Booker said about Durant. “Things like that can happen. I thought he slipped at first, but seeing the video, he turned (his left ankle).”
Durant is averaging 26.7 points in his three games with the Suns (37-29), who won all three. He’s coming off a 37-point effort in Sunday’s win at Dallas where he hit the game winner with 12.4 seconds left.
With a history of injuries, Durant suffered a right MCL sprain Jan. 8 at Miami. The Suns traded Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first round picks and a pick swap to Brooklyn for T.J. Warren and Durant right before the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
Durant nearly missed two months before making his Suns debut last week at Charlotte.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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