USATSI
Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker may return to the lineup as quickly as subsequent Tuesday towards the Brooklyn Nets, in line with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Booker has been out for 5 weeks with a strained left groin. He has been ramping up his on-court work, nonetheless, and he’s anticipated to hitch the group for its upcoming five-game highway journey that begins towards the Boston Celtics on Friday.
Booker’s absence has been tough on the Suns. The Suns had been the Western Conference frontrunners in December, however they’re 8-10 since Booker went down and have since slid all the way in which to seventh place. But given the tightness within the West, Phoenix is at the moment solely three video games above the Thirteenth-place Los Angeles Lakers, so getting Booker again shortly to cushion their lead over the groups outdoors of the highest 10 is important.
When he was taking part in, Booker established himself as a fringe MVP candidate. He’s at the moment on tempo to set a brand new career-high by averaging 27.1 factors per recreation on extra environment friendly capturing and with extra assists than he had a season in the past. With Chris Paul’s age exhibiting, Jae Crowder now not with the group and accidents to nearly everybody else on the roster, Booker has wanted to step up his recreation to maintain the Suns within the playoff image.
Now that he is returning, the Suns can have most of their roster accessible to them for the primary time in fairly a while. Paul is wholesome. DeAndre Ayton and Cam Johnson are wholesome. The Suns have reportedly been lively on the commerce market, and as soon as they make it again to full energy, they might be among the many scariest groups within the Western Conference.
