The Phoenix Suns will try to starve off elimination on Thursday night against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets without Deandre Ayton in the mix. This is after the Suns ruled out their starting center due to a rib injury that apparently, could be a lot more concerning than initially anticipated. At this point, it sounds like Ayton could be out for an extended period due to what has turned out to be a worrying injury.
ESPN's NBA insider Tim MacMahon shed some light on the severity of Ayton's injury, and it's not exactly the type of news Suns fans will want to hear. As it turns out, this is the type of injury that could force a player to miss a significant amount of time:
“A source described Ayton as ‘experiencing significant pain in his ribs and core area,' adding that his breathing is being impacted. The injury generally takes multiple weeks to recover from, the source said,” wrote MacMahon.
The fact that Ayton is now having issues with his breathing because of this knock is clearly not a good sign. The report indicating “multiple weeks” is an even more ominous development for Ayton and the Suns.
Even if Phoenix is able to scrape out a win on Thursday night to force a winner-take-all Game 7, it remains unclear if Ayton will be available for that game. At worse, Deandre Ayton may have already played his last game of the season for the Suns.
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