All-Star forward Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns will miss some time with an ankle injury. He’s due to miss at least a week with a sprained left ankle. As the Suns were enjoying their most recent home game against the Houston Rockets, the injury bug bit again. Kevin Durant landed awkwardly on his right ankle after a collision with Rockets forward Jabari Smith beneath the Phoenix basket. The unacceptable and avoidable injury caused Durant to leave the game, barely able to put weight on his left leg. This injury blows the Suns out of the water. Today, they find themselves fighting to make it into the NBA Play-In Tournament.
Only time—if ever—will let the Suns know how badly they’ll miss Durant. This season, they have floundered without him, amassing a pitiful 2-11 record in games without him versus their solid 33-29 mark with him on the court. KD might be 36 years old, but he’s never been more electric for the Suns. He’s leading the nation in scoring at 26.6 points per game while shooting a blistering 52.7% from the field. Rewind a bit to this season when he leapt into eighth place on the NBA all-time scoring list. This achievement enshrined his legacy as one of the league’s greatest players to ever perform.
The injury occurred in a blowout loss to the Rockets on Sunday night. The sting of this defeat only compounds the Suns’ challenges as, following this loss, they now sit 1.5 games back of a Play-In Tournament berth with just seven games remaining in the regular season. To make things worse, Phoenix has the hardest remaining schedule in the league. Durant’s absence has already cost the Suns winnable games vs. the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night and the Boston Celtics on Friday night. He will miss Sunday’s matchup against the New York Knicks.
Durant has a long history of problems with his left ankle. He sprained it three times in two years when he was playing out in Phoenix. His absence will leave a huge hole in the Suns’ lineup as they try to figure things out over this important stretch of games.
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