Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal was questionable heading into tonight.
The Phoenix Suns will not have the services of star guard Bradley Beal against the Los Angeles Clippers tonight.
As such, their starting lineup will be as follows:
Tyus Jones
Ryan Dunn
Devin Booker
Kevin Durant
Jusuf Nurkic
Beal was questionable with an elbow injury entering tonight. Josh Okogie was again ruled out with a hamstring problem that’s kept him out of every regular season game thus far.
Beal missed last weekend’s home opener with the injury, where the rookie Dunn received the starting nod in his place.
“It feels better today,” Beal told The Arizona Republic’s Duane Rankin at morning shootaround. “Got a little injection. Got to let that kick in, let it do its magic, but I feel significantly better today than the last couple of days.”
Now, the Suns will have to again deploy a starting unit without Beal.
Beal’s game log thus far:
at LAC: 24 PTS, 3 REB, 1 AST
at LAL: 15 PTS, 1 REB, 9 AST
vs LAL: 15 PTS, 3 REB, 4 AST
Beal has also recorded five steals through his three games played.
There was hope that Beal would return to previous scoring form after being forced to handle point guard duties last season under prior head coach Frank Vogel.
The Suns fired Vogel, brought in Mike Budenholzer and also signed starting point guard Tyus Jones to handle those duties, allowing Beal to play off-ball in his more typical role.
With a 3-1 record for the Suns to start the 2024-25 season, it’s hard to complain about results thus far.
Beal’s 18 points averaged per night ranks just behind Kevin Durant (29) and Devin Booker (23) while he’s behind Jones (6) with 4.7 assists per night.
Beal isn’t the most prominent star in Phoenix, but through the early stages of the new year, he’s certainly proved his worth.
Opening tip between the Suns and Clippers is slated to be just past 7:30 PM.