PHOENIX — Devin Booker sprained his right ankle Saturday night during the game Phoenix Suns‘ 118-109 defeat At Houston Rockets.
Suns coach Frank Vogel said X-rays were negative on Booker’s ankle and he did not immediately rule the All-Star out of Sunday’s home game against the Suns. Oklahoma City Thunder.
“We’ll see how he reacts overnight,” Vogel added.
Booker was injured when he and his teammate Royce O’Neale tangled their feet with 1:15 to play. Booker, who scored 24 points, immediately limped off the court toward the locker room.
O’Neale also suffered a sprained right ankle. Vogel said O’Neale did not have X-rays because his injury was “not really concerning.”
The Suns also lost the center Jusuf Nurkic with a sprained neck in the second quarter. He was also examined for a concussion, but was cleared. Nurkic was also injured by a teammate when Josh Okogic accidentally delivered a blow to Nurkic.
To make matters worse, Suns guard Bradley Beal was forced out upon his return to the lineup after missing five games with a hamstring injury. Beal was evaluated two quick techniques before leaving.
The shorthanded Suns couldn’t keep up Green Jalenwho scored 34 points, while his teammate Fred VanVleet added 24 for the Rockets.
“That’s what we want to be every night,” said Green, who made six 3-pointers.
Kevin Durant led the Suns with 30 points and O’Neale added 20. Beal finished with seven points on 3-of-6 shooting.
“We fought back, we fought back,” Vogel said. “We wasted the game like teams do sometimes. But it wasn’t enough.”
Green shot 12 of 23 from the field, including 6 of 12 from 3-point range. Alperen Sengun added 21 points and 10 rebounds.
The Rockets led for most of the game, but the Suns cut it to 99-98 midway through the fourth quarter. Josh OkogieIt’s a layup. VanVleet responded with a 3-pointer to put the rally back.
“It was good to see that fight, the physicality, I think we had that from the beginning,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “It was obviously day and night last game, where we got off to a bad start. Tonight we kind of jumped on them.”
The Suns beat the Rockets 110-105 on Thursday.
Information from Field Level Media and the Associated Press was used in this report.
