The battered and bruised Phoenix Suns are expected to have a couple of stellar reinforcements back on the court when they host the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night in an NBA Cup contest.
Phoenix coach Mike Budenholzer said Monday that Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal are slated to return from left calf strains after making it through consecutive days of practice without a setback. The two players are probable.
Phoenix is 1-6 in the games missed by Durant and 0-5 since Beal went down. This will be the Suns’ first game since losing 138-122 at home to the New York Knicks on Wednesday to stretch their skid to five games.
Durant, 36, was playing superbly before the injury with averages of 27.6 points and 6.6 rebounds. The two-time NBA Finals MVP has made 24 of 56 shots (42.9 percent) from 3-point range.
Beal, 31, is averaging 17.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists.
“I definitely feel a lot better,” Beal said at Monday’s practice. “I’m thankful we had the schedule we had so we had some rest days, Kev and I.”
Phoenix will be happy to see the duo on the court after losing by double digits four times during the five-game slide.
“Bringing that extra firepower back to the team is going to help us out a lot,” Suns rookie forward Ryan Dunn said Monday.
The Suns will certainly be well-rested after having so much time off since the porous effort against the Knicks.
“It’s pretty rare to get this amount of time,” Phoenix guard Grayson Allen said. “We could do a lot of teaching … with not having to scout for another team.”
The Lakers and Suns are set to meet for the third time this season. They split two matchups in late October.
Durant scored 30 points in both games. Lakers big man Anthony Davis averaged 32.
Los Angeles has dropped its past two games, most recently getting routed 127-102 by the visiting Denver Nuggets on Saturday.
The Lakers were crushed 70-39 in the second half by Denver.
“Clearly, the spirit to compete just wasn’t there,” Los Angeles coach JJ Redick said.
LeBron James scored 18 points but committed six turnovers. He has 33 miscues over the past six games.
Davis was soundly outplayed by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, scoring a season-low 14 points and making just 6 of 19 shots from the field.
“I just missed shots. I think all great looks,” Davis said. “It’s a miss-or-make league. I’ll make more than I’ll miss, for sure. You always wish you can make every shot. I’m confident in every shot I took. They’re shots that I normally make.
“All of us, to be honest. Shots that we all normally make, we just missed. But I like every shot that I took tonight. They just didn’t go in.”
Davis had topped 20 points in all 14 appearances this season before the poor outing against Denver.
Austin Reaves scored a team-high 19 for the Lakers. He has five 20-point efforts this season and two were against Phoenix.
Reaves scored 26 in a 123-116 home win on Oct. 25 and 23 during a 109-105 loss at Phoenix on Oct. 28. He made five 3-pointers in each contest.
The Lakers lead West Group B Play with a 2-0 record in the NBA Cup competition after winning the inaugural competition last year. Phoenix is 1-1. The Oklahoma City Thunder (1-1), San Antonio Spurs (1-1) and Utah Jazz (0-2) are also part of the group.
–Field Level Media