Suns All-Star in Danger of Missing Pacers Matchup

The Pacers might get lucky in their final matchup this season with the Suns.

Apr 12, 2024; Sacramento, California, USA; Phoenix Suns guard Grayson Allen (8) and guard Devin Booker (1) and guard Bradley Beal (3) and forward Royce O'Neale (00) and forward Kevin Durant (35) huddle up before the final seconds of the fourth quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images / Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images

Perhaps no contending team has been more decimated with injuries this season than the Indiana Pacers. They lost two backup centers in the first couple of games to a torn Achilles. After that, they lost their starting small forward to an ankle sprain. Aaron Nesmith has played just six games because of that injury.

Andrew Nembard missed a month because of knee issues as well. Ben Sheppard missed about the same amount of time with an oblique injury. Quite frankly, they have had to play more depth than they wanted to come into this season. They do not feel sorry for other teams who have injury problems.

The Suns are one of those teams who might have an injury issue heading into their matchup with the Pacers on Saturday. This is the second and final matchup between these two teams. The Pacers won the first matchup between these two in Phoenix.

In that game, the Suns lost Devin Booker after the first half due to an injury. That helped the Pacers win 120-111. All three All-Stars did play for the Suns, but not all of them finished the game. For the second matchup on Saturday, there's a chance that one of them could miss this one.

Bradley Beal is officially listed as questionable on the injury report due to a left hip contusion. Both Booker and Kevin Durant will be healthy for this game, but it would be less than ideal if the Suns didn't have all three of their big guys for this matchup twitha team they've already lost to this season.

So far this season, Beal is averaging 18 points per game for the Suns. Not having him for any game is a problem because of the pressure he takes off of the other two guys. They are already missing Jusuf Nurkic for this game because of a suspension due to his part in an altercation with the Mavericks.

The Pacers have lost three out of their last five games but are also coming off a big blowout win against the Heat. They are looking to take that momentum to help them win this game against the Suns. The Pacers are still trying to figure out what kind of team they are going to be this year.

Indiana has had a brutal schedule so far this year. That schedule has started to get a little easier. They need to take advantage of some of these easier games to make up ground in the Eastern Conference.

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