The Phoenix Suns played their first game after the All-Star break on Thursday night, drawing the San Antonio Spurs in Austin. It felt like a useful measuring stick, a chance to see where Phoenix stood against one of the better teams in the league and a team they had already beaten twice this season.
That opportunity shifted quickly.
Devin Booker exited the game with a little over five minutes left in the first quarter and did not return to the bench right away, heading straight back to the locker room. Optimism crept back in when he reappeared on the bench and eventually checked into the game early in the second quarter. He gave it a few minutes, tried to play through it, then headed back to the locker room again.
That was it for his night. The issue was right hip soreness, and Booker would remain out for the rest of the game.
It was another frustrating moment for a Suns team that cannot seem to align health and timing. Jalen Green, playing in only his eighth game of the season, looked like he was finally finding a rhythm. But with Dillon Brooks suspended after picking up his 16th technical foul in the final game before the break, Grayson Allen sidelined with an ankle injury, and Booker unavailable, the margin for error disappeared quickly.
The team would go on to lose 121-94 to the Spurs.
“Tried to go back out there. Save himself from himself. Wanted to go out and play. Wasn’t moving great when he came back in,” Suns head coach Jordan Ott noted after the game. “He felt good enough to come back in, and the first couple of times up and down, I didn’t notice anything, and then definitely noticed there at the end of that second stint.”
Watching the injury unfold live, there was no obvious moment where Booker took a hard hit or suffered a violent tweak. Nothing stood out as a clear cause. It looked like one of those things that built quietly until it could not be ignored anymore.
The Suns now turn their attention to Saturday afternoon, when they host Orlando at home with a 3:00pm tip. As always, the focus shifts back to the same question that keeps following this team around.