Through all of the ups and downs the Phoenix Suns have had to face early in the season — injuries leading to two different losing streaks — it can be easy for a player on the roster to say that the team’s spirits are high, as previously reported.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!However, on the heels of a three-game losing streak (and losing 10 of their last 14 games) due to multiple injuries on the roster, players on the Suns feel a sense of urgency to get back to their early-season winnings ways.
“Urgent, I would say the sense is urgent,” 11-year vet Mason Plumlee said Wednesday on the mindset of the locker room. “We need to get, not just winning, but (back to) playing how we want to play. We’re going to get it going.”
The Suns started the season 8-1, and healthy, before Kevin Durant was sidelined with a left calf strain. The injury to the 17-year vet caused a subsequent domino effect of losing and injuries to many others on the roster. Since that 8-1 start, Phoenix has gone 4-10 and, more drastically, 1-9 without Durant.
Durant was playing at an MVP level before his first injury (he has been sidelined the last three games with a left ankle sprain), so it’s easy to imagine that the Suns were missing his production. Plumlee, nevertheless, believes that there have been a few games without Durant that Phoenix should have won.
“In the games that we’ve won with (Durant), he bails us out of a lot of tough, late clock situations,” Plumlee said. “But, like I said, we had enough to win those games (without him) and we didn’t get it done.
“There’s different challenges in every part of the season and we may see it again and my hope is that we’ll be better prepared for that.”
Along with Durant, the Suns have suffered injuries to various other key role players during this 14-game stretch — Bradley Beal (left calf strain) has missed eight total games, Grayson Allen (out early in the season for personal reasons and an achilles injury) was recently a limited participant in practice with an ankle injury, Jusuf Nurkić (right thigh contusion) has missed five-straight games, and rookie Ryan Dunn (left ankle soreness) has been out for the last three.
Coupling this amount of injuries with it being so early in the season has been a priority for coach Mike Budenholzer to manage with effectiveness. Following Durant’s first injury this season, he stressed that it was more important to prioritize the aging star’s health rather than needing his production on the floor; and he feels the same this time around with multiple injuries.
“Our league is really tough, a marathon is often used as a comparison,” Budenholzer said. “You got to think big picture and short-term and long-term and I think keeping them healthy for as long as possible, not doing anything that’s not wise, just that balance. But our medical staff does a great job. The players, at the end of the day, they know how they feel and what they can do, so you have to listen and trust your players too.”
It will have been four days between when Phoenix played the Orlando Magic on Sunday and when they face off with the Utah Jazz tomorrow. The Suns have since gotten promising updates on many of their sidelined players and look to become whole yet again.
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Reporter Connor Moreno covers the Phoenix Suns for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @cmorenosports, and on Bluesky, @cloading.bsky.social
