Suns’ Devin Booker will not play at least next 2 games, to be reevaluated

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

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

Booker left Thursday’s 120-111 loss against the Indiana Pacers during the third quarter with what the team described as left groin tightness. Head coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters postgame Booker would be re-evaluated in the morning.

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

“You’re definitely disheartened by it, because you never want to see anybody hurt, definitely not the guy of his caliber,” Beal said at shootaround on Friday. “But I mean, you just got to keep hooping. You got to keep going, keep pushing.”

Durant and Beal have each missed 10 games this season.

The Suns have struggled to overcome the injuries this year, notably with a 1-9 record when Durant does not play and 5-5 record when Beal is out.

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

Booker has dealt with groin issues in the past, most recently in December 2022 when he missed three games, came back on Christmas Day and went down five minutes into the 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.

Rest of Suns-Pistons injury report

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

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

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

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

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