Disaster struck when the Suns’ star was sidelined for weeks due to an injury

The Phoenix Suns’ 8-1 start was just too good to be true, right? First, Ryan Dunn sprained his ankle, causing him to miss the thrilling one-point win over the Dallas Mavericks, before Jusuf Nurkic appeared questionable on the injury report due to ankle soreness of his own.

Bradley Beal has already missed some time with an elbow issue, although thankfully he is out there playing at the moment. All that, and guys like Monte Morris and Josh Okogie still don’t get a look into the Suns’ rotation, which is being depleted at an alarming rate. On Sunday, however, things got really bad again.

We are now two Sundays away from Durant’s calf – which he appeared to be holding on to in the fourth quarter of that epic win in Dallas – being reevaluated and not having him back on the court that day. This is an absolute disaster for one of the five hottest teams in the league so far this season and the current leaders of the Western Conference.

To make matters worse, Durant has played in difficult situations so far this season – and the Suns have been there a lot of them – goes a long way towards explaining their excellent record to date. They made a 36-year-old Durant finish games in a way we’ve seen from him in more than a decade, and it felt like this could continue indefinitely.

It’s just that Durant doesn’t have the build of a player 10 years his junior, and his injury record should always mean giving him big minutes should be done with caution. Which clearly didn’t matter to the Suns this season, as Durant averaged a team-high 38.8 minutes per night while giving his team 27.6 minutes per night.

This news means Durant is likely out of major matchups with the Oklahoma City Thunder (also an Emirates NBA Cup game) and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Another meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers will be canceled for three days after the injury is assessed – again a cup game – so it is unclear whether he will meet this one too.

Obviously, the franchise can once again turn to Devin Booker, who has led the Suns for a decade and has additional help in the form of Beal with two-way basketball and Tyus Jones to set the table. But you can bet the team’s offensive and defensive numbers will dip while the woeful combination of Nurkic and Dunn, who may also miss some time, is terrible.

The Suns have two games against the Sacramento Kings and an Orlando Magic team that is without their own superstar Paolo Banchero due to injury, and they should look to pick up more wins there. But everything was going so well and the team was picking up difficult wins that it’s such a shame to have lost that momentum due to a niggling calf strain. We hope for a speedy recovery.