Durant to miss time because of ankle injury
Kevin Durant can’t catch a break. Durant rolled his ankle in pregame warmups ahead of Phoenix’s 132-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday and will miss a few weeks, at least.
The Suns announced Durant suffered an ankle sprain, though they did not specify what grade, and said he will be reevaluated in three weeks.
It’s a tough blow for the superstar scorer who only forced a trade to the Suns after Kyrie Irving’s decision to request a trade ahead of the Feb. 9 NBA trade deadline — a move Durant said blindsided him in a February podcast appearance.
Durant was coming off of a 37-point effort on 12-of-17 shooting in Phoenix’s victory over Luka Doncic, Irving and the Dallas Mavericks.
It seemed he was finally settling into a playing rhythm before rolling his ankle on Wednesday.
“He’s out there working his tail off, getting ready for the game, and he twists his ankle,” Suns head coach Monty Williams said after the game. “So I mean, you can’t get frustrated at that. It’s life. I feel bad for him because he feels bad. I saw his face, and I’ve been around him so many times, I know what he’s feeling. I don’t want him feeling that way at all.
“I think every team in the nba is cautious just because there’s a care for the guys that are trying to win games and protect their livelihoods. So this will be no different. We just have to wait and see how he responds to treatment, and we’ll probably get some more imaging just to make sure everybody’s on the same page.
Durant played 39 games for the Nets this season and averaged 29.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game before the trade. He missed the final 14 games of his tenure with the Nets with an MCL sprain and missed the first six games of his Suns career with the same injury.
He rolled the ankle moments before tipoff ahead of his fourth game with his new team.
The Nets traded Durant to the Suns for four first round picks, plus wing players Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson. The Suns have 16 games remaining on their schedule. If Durant misses two weeks, he will have nine games left in the regular season before the Suns make a playoff push.