Suns’ Devin Booker out for next 2 games, will be reevaluated

On By Littum

The Phoenix Suns have ruled guard Devin Booker out for Saturday’s home game against the Detroit Pistons with soreness in his left groin.

The team then announced Saturday that Booker would be out at least through Monday’s game at the Denver Nuggets. He will be reevaluated early next week, with a chance to play on Christmas Day in the short turnaround against the Nuggets.

Booker left Thursday’s 120-111 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the third quarter with what the team described as left groin tightness. Head coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters after the game that Booker would be reevaluated tomorrow morning.

Booker has yet to miss a game this season, and his injury continued a trend of the Big 3 not finishing games together. In one of the last 17 games, Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal have started a game and finished without anyone leaving due to injury.

“You’re definitely discouraged about it because you never want to see anybody get hurt, certainly not the guy of his caliber,” Beal said at shootaround Friday. “But I mean, you just have to keep jumping. You have to keep going, keep pushing.”

Durant and Beal have each missed 10 games this season.

The Suns have struggled to overcome injuries this year, especially with a 1-9 record when Durant doesn’t play and a 5-5 record when Beal is out.

“We’re going to have to do a better job of that, creating a more general identity. … All three of them aren’t going to play every night, that’s just the reality,” Suns guard Tyus Jones said Friday. “When an injury happens, we can still hang our hat on our pillars of how we want to play and what our identity is. … We just have to do a better job of sticking to it.”

Booker has dealt with groin issues in the past, most recently in December 2022 when he missed three games, returned on Christmas Day and went five minutes a game for the next six weeks.

The four-time All-Star has averaged 25.1 points, 6.4 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game this season.

The rest of the Suns-Pistons injury report

Phoenix big man Bol Bol is questionable with a left knee contusion. Bol has been out of the rotation and hasn’t played since Dec. 8 in Orlando.

For Detroit, guard Jaden Ivey will likely play with left knee inflammation. Ivey has started 25 of 26 Pistons games this year and is averaging 17.3 points per game. game as the team’s second-leading scorer behind Cade Cunningham.

Center Isaiah Stewart is out with a hyperextension sprain in his left knee. In 27 games, he is averaging 6.0 points and 6.0 rebounds. Last year, Stewart received a three-game suspension for reportedly punching then-Suns center Drew Eubanks at the Footprint Center.

Suns-Pistons tips from Footprint Center at 7pm MST on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app.