Suns’ Deandre Ayton leaves win vs. Pistons with sprained right ankle

Phoenix Suns starting center Deandre Ayton exited Sunday’s 135-108 win against the Detroit Pistons after spraining his right ankle in the first half, the Suns’ broadcast confirmed.

Following the victory, Suns head coach Monty Williams had no update on Ayton’s status going forward.

Ayton was 3-3 from the field with six points and two assists in eight minutes of play before exiting.

Looks like this could be when DA tweaked something. He came over to Monty to say something right after and then McGee got brought in pic.twitter.com/GWeiOu4PA4

— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) January 16, 2022

The loss of Ayton brought familiar territory for Phoenix, as the team has dealt with temporary losses to many of their big men because of injuries or COVID-19 issues.

Backup bigs JaVale McGee, Jalen Smith as well as mid-season signee Bismack Biyombo have filled in nicely while Ayton has missed time, and the trio saw an uptick in minutes once he went down on Sunday.

McGee started Sunday’s game 4-5 from the field and went on to score 20 points in 15 minutes of play.

Smith added 15 minutes of his own, as well as 14 minutes from Biyombo as the two combined for 10 points.

Ayton has missed 14 of the team’s 41 games this season.

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