Kevin Durant attends 90% of Suns practice and hopes to return

The Phoenix Suns want to return to full strength and rediscover the feeling of winning.

They haven’t seen much of either since their 8-1 start, but are hoping for Kevin Durant (left ankle sprain), Jusuf Nurkic (right thigh contusion), Grayson Allen (right ankle injury) and rookie Ryan Dunn ( Pain in left ankle). ) will be able to return from their injuries for Friday’s game at Utah.

Phoenix’s next four games are against teams with losing records, with three of those games coming at home, where the Suns are 8-4. They have a unique opportunity to turn their season around with a hopefully healthy squad.

“Our league is really tough,” Suns coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Marathon is often the comparison. You have to think about the big picture, short term and long term. I think that you have to keep them healthy as long as possible, make sure they are healthy and don’t do anything that isn’t wise or wise.” That balance.

The Suns had a duel during practice on Wednesday in which Durant, Nurkic and Dunn were heavily involved.

“Nurk did everything,” Budenholzer said. “He feels good, he feels better. I think we’re hopeful. We’ll get back to him (Thursday), but he did everything. Ryan, I think, did everything. He looks and feels good, same check in (Thursday). ).”

Budenholzer said Durant attended “90%” of Wednesday’s practice.

“It was good,” he continued. “I think we’re hopeful.” We’ll get back to him.

To round out the injury update, Budenholzer said Allen may have completed “20%” of Wednesday’s practice. Allen suffered the most recent injury of all four when he twisted his right ankle in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss in Orlando.

“We hope that Grayson will be doing well in another 24, 48 hours,” Budenholzer said.

Since their 8-1 start, the Suns have gone 4-10 and have been without Durant for 10 of those games due to a left calf strain and left ankle sprain. Phoenix is 1-9 behind their best player, but is well on its way to returning to Utah.

“He looked like himself,” Suns star guard Devin Booker said of Durant after Wednesday’s practice. “He moves well. He makes shots and does what he does.”

Suns big man Mason Plumlee pointed out the advantage of having Durant, Nurkic and Dunn take part in the scrimmage.

“It’s very helpful,” Plumlee said. “Some of these guys had been out for a while. The scrimmage was good to give them some running power and give them a game-like situation.”

The 5-18 Jazz are the only team the Suns have beaten without Durant, who leads the team with 25.8 points per game.

“In the games we’ve won with him, he’s saved us in a lot of tough situations late into the night,” Plumlee said. “He’s our closer in the final moments but we had enough to win those games and we didn’t. There are different challenges in each phase of the season. We may experience it again. I hope we can do it.” better prepared, but obviously happy to have him back.

Durant suffered a sprained left ankle in the first half of last week’s win over San Antonio. He didn’t return in the second half, but Phoenix won 104-93 after the Spurs cut their 13-point halftime lead to two in the third quarter.

Booker described the second half of that win as a “growing moment,” but the Suns haven’t won since. They allowed 45 points in the third quarter in a two-point loss in New Orleans to begin their current three-game losing streak.

Miami shot 52.3% from the field and hit 13 of 32 from 3 in the 10-point win over Phoenix. Then, for the second straight, the Suns gave up 23 Orlando points on their 21 turnovers at the 115: 110 defeat on Sunday.

The Magic had their two best players, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, down due to oblique injuries, but still won against the Suns when Jalen Suggs scored 14 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter.

The Suns missed out on a place in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, but have four days between Sunday’s loss in Orlando and Friday’s game against the Jazz, giving Durant more time to bounce back from injury without missing any games .

Phoenix drew Utah and Portland (8-16) to complete its 82-game schedule after failing to advance from group play. The Blazers have the longest active losing streak in the NBA with four straight losses.

So not only are the Suns hoping for a speedy return from Nurkic, Allen, Dunn and Durant, their next four games are against Utah, Portland, Indiana (5-10) and Detroit (5-10).

Phoenix sits in 10th place in the West, but just four games behind Memphis (17-8), which is second in the Western Conference.

Nurkic has missed Phoenix’s last five games with a bruised right thigh. Dunn has missed the last three games with left ankle soreness and Grayson Allen injured his right ankle on Sunday.

The Suns are certainly a different team when these four are healthy.

“The purpose is urgent,” Plumlee said. “We not only have to win again, but also play the way we want to play. We will do it.”

Bradley Beal previously missed eight games due to right elbow and left calf injuries. Phoenix was 3-5 without him and its longest losing streak of five in a row came without Beal and Durant. Both had to take a break due to a strained left calf.

As a result, the Suns have only played 10 games with their Big 3 Booker, Durant and Beal. They are 8-2 in those games as Booker has yet to miss a game this season.

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