Devin Booker, Bradley Beal out for Suns vs. Jazz

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (left ankle sprain) and Bradley Beal (low back tightness) are out for Saturday’s home opener against the Utah Jazz, per the official injury report.

Beal has yet to play in the regular season while this would be Booker’s second straight missed game.

Booker played in the season opener on Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors after he was listed as questionable due to soreness in his left big toe. He was then on the injury report again for Thursday’s game in Los Angeles versus the Lakers, but this time for left foot soreness and was down as doubtful before not playing.

TNT’s Jared Greenberg reported during the broadcast on Thursday that the foot injury for Booker occurred in that game. Greenberg noted Booker wanted to play on Saturday but would need to get the right results on a MRI before playing, and that he could be out until the game after that on Tuesday.

Booker’s injury designation for Saturday was changed again to a left ankle sprain after getting labeled as left foot soreness for Thursday.

Beal missed two games in the preseason due to low back tightness and hasn’t played in over a week. He was a late scratch on Oct. 12 for his back, played on Oct. 16 and then was out again on Oct. 19 because of the injury. When the regular season came around, Beal was questionable for Tuesday’s fixture and doubtful prior to Thursday, not suiting up for either.

On Monday, Beal said he felt a little tweak in his back in between the preseason game he played and the finale he sat out of.

Phoenix’s offense without both Beal and Booker had serious issues in Thursday’s loss, unable to find a consistent source of generating good shots outside of Kevin Durant, who was double- and triple-teamed all night. He still managed to score 39 points but everyone else outside of Jordan Goodwin in the first half was unable to get the offense in a rhythm. Phoenix’s offensive rating in the half-court was 77.1, a terrible number, per Cleaning the Glass. For reference, it was 97.5 last season.

Even if it’s just Beal out, the Suns will need much more from Grayson Allen and Eric Gordon. Not so much with scoring but with putting pressure on the defense into rotations to spark Phoenix’s ball movement. Goodwin had the most success with doing that out of the three, making him a strong candidate to get good minutes once again.

Allen and Gordon started in place of Beal and Booker on Thursday but Goodwin did close out the fourth quarter bringing the ball up. He could get the nod instead.

Phoenix faces Utah at 7 p.m. on the Arizona Sports app, 98.7 and ArizonaSports.com.

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