Phoenix Suns star guard Devin Booker exited early during their Christmas Day game against the Denver Nuggets after re-aggravating his groin injury in the first quarter. Booker did not return to the court as the Suns lost to their conference rivals.
A couple days later, and there’s concern that this injury could impact Booker moving forward. The Suns announced that Booker is back in Phoenix to get further evaluation of the injury and already ruled him out for Tuesday’s outing with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Booker, 26, has missed five of the Suns’ past eight games. While he did have a 58-point outing in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans back on Dec. 17, it’s clear that something is not right here.
For a Suns team that sits at 19-15 and as the fifth seed in the Western Conference, this can’t be seen as good news. Phoenix is 1-4 in the five games that Booker has missed over the past two-plus weeks. Dating back to last season, the Suns are 8-10 with Booker sidelined and 75-23 when he suits up. You can do the math from there.
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- Devin Booker stats (2022-23): 27.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 5.6 APG, 48% shooting, 37% 3-point
When he’s been on the court this season, Booker has looked every bit the part of an NBA MVP candidate. That includes five games with at least 41 points and another two in which Booker has hit the 50-point plateau.
The Suns are currently in the beginning stages of a six-game road trip that will see them face off with the aforementioned Grizzlies as well as the Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. They then have a difficult strech of outings against the Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors and Nuggets. Depending on how long Devin Booker is out, things could get ugly here.
We’ll have further updates on his injury when they become available.