After leaving the Phoenix Suns’ 148-109 loss to the Houston Rockets with an ankle injury, 15-time All-Star small forward Kevin Durant has been diagnosed with a left ankle sprain and is expected to miss at least one week due to the injury, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
“We’ll get an MRI on it tomorrow,” said the Suns’ first-year head coach, Mike Budenholzer, when speaking to the media earlier today. “He’ll stay back [on the road trip], and we’ll assess.”
Phoenix Suns All-Star Kevin Durant is expected to miss at least one week through team’s three-game road trip with a left ankle sprain, sources tell ESPN. Suns are 1.5 games out of Play-In with the toughest remaining schedule in the NBA.
More for NBA Today on ESPN at 3 pm ET. pic.twitter.com/grdYpJEPJ5
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 31, 2025
Faced with a 92-57 deficit with roughly seven minutes left in the third quarter of yesterday’s game, Durant attempted to drive for a layup before suffering a misstep and hurting his ankle, causing him to fall to the floor in pain. Though he was able to get up, he eventually hobbled to the locker room, where he was ruled out for the remainder of the game.
In his third season with the Phoenix, Durant currently leads the team with 26.6 points per game. He’s also the Suns’ third-best passer (4.2 assists per game) and fourth-best rebounder (6.0 boards per game).
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Horrible timing for the Suns
It’s not like things were going well in Phoenix before this injury occurred. Coming into the game against the Rockets, the Suns had a 35-39 record and were riding a two-game losing streak. And when Durant went down, the Suns were already out of it, facing a 35-point third-quarter deficit. With the loss to Houston, Phoenix fell to 35-40, meaning they now trail the Sacramento Kings for the last spot in the NBA Western Conference Playoffs’ Play-In Tournament by one-and-a-half games.
It sounds like the Suns will be without KD’s services until April 6th at the earliest. That means Durant could miss the next three games, which is less than ideal considering the Suns only have seven regular-season games remaining on their schedule.
Devin Booker and Bradley Beal will have to up their game if they want to help the Suns remain afloat in the Western Conference playoff race. They were already struggling and getting blown out WITH Durant on the court. Now, they’ll have to improve their performance against three playoff teams – the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, and Boston Celtics – without Durant taking some of the attention away from them.
Kevin Durant left the game after injuring his ankle on this play. pic.twitter.com/OUJ3YmZO7I
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 31, 2025
I could see the Suns winning one game during that stretch. I don’t expect them to beat the Knicks or the Celtics, but they could defeat the Bucks since Milwaukee is reeling right now and has lost four straight games. However, it’s worth noting that one of the Bucks’ four losses came to the Suns by just two points, a game in which Kevin Durant went for 38 points. Therefore, there’s a strong possibility that the Suns will lose their next three games without KD, making their uphill climb to a playoff spot even more treacherous.
I have said since the start of last season that the Phoenix Suns were a gutless team. This was proven by the fact that they were swept in the first round of the 2023-24 NBA Playoffs. They hired Mike Budenholzer to inject some life into the team, but they have a losing record through 75 games this season. I don’t think that will change now that they’ve lost their best player during the tram’s most important stretch of the season.
I believe that this injury will be the death knell for the 2024-25 Phoenix Suns.
The Suns’ big-three experiment has been a historic failure
Ever since the Boston Celtics introduced us to the idea of a Big Three back in the late 2000s, we have seen countless teams try to replicate that concept with varying degrees of success. The Miami Heat’s Big Three was able to win back-to-back championships and made four straight NBA Finals appearances. The Golden State Warriors had their own Big Three, which won four championships from 2015 to 2022. Even the Boston Celtics formulated another Big Three – this one with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Jrue Holiday – which has already won one championship and looks positioned to maybe win another this season.
Then we get to the Phoenix Suns’ Big Three: Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. Since this Big Three was created in the 2022 off-season, there have been high expectations placed on Durant, Booker, and Beal, and rightfully so. They may be the most talented Big Three ever assembled. So far, though, they have nothing to show for all of their efforts.
“The Phoenix Suns are an atrocity. They are bad for basketball.”
—@stephenasmith 😯 pic.twitter.com/JE8DdUqrFG
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 31, 2025
That’s why it’s time to admit that the Suns’ Big Three is not just a failure but the worst Big Three failure in NBA history. Even though he was old when he arrived in the desert, KD still had a lot of gas left in the tank, as demonstrated by the fact that he averaged 26 points and six rebounds per game in his first season with the Suns. While they already had Devin Booker, who was averaging 27.8 points per game that year, they were still missing one final piece, and Chris Paul couldn’t be that guy any longer. That led to them trading for Bradley Beal, whose scoring output has only fallen since joining the Suns.
After formulating their Big Three, Phoenix has won zero playoff games and accumulated a total record of 84-77, including that embarrassing first-round sweep they suffered at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves. A 0.521 win percentage with three All-Star candidates and two potential Hall of Famers is shameful and a testament to the palace of mediocrity that has been built in Arizona. If they miss the playoffs on top of everything else, then this run in the Suns’ history can only be seen as a colossal failure, maybe the biggest in NBA history.
