Kevin Durant's Injury 'Dooms' Suns Title Hopes

The Phoenix Suns will have to navigate most - if not all - of the rest of the regular season without Kevin Durant following his left ankle sprain suffered earlier this week.

The Suns were on track to forge themselves as the team to beat with Durant back on the floor, going an impressive 3-0 with historic numbers between the duo of Durant and Devin Booker.

Now, with just 16 games left, the Suns (37-29, nine games back from first) will try to stay afloat in a tough Western Conference where seeds 4-8 are currently decided by 3.5 games.

Booker showed he's still capable of shouldering the load after a 44-point outburst in the win over Oklahoma City, but expecting that effort every night moving forward isn't feasible.

FS1 talking head Shannon Sharpe said the Suns are doomed without Durant.

"Nah, they're not winning no championship without Kevin Durant. Hell naw. It was gonna be hard for them to win a championship with Kevin Durant. It's impossible. It's going to be impossible … I don't want to say impossible, how about 99.9%, they got less than a Clorox chance," said Sharpe.

"To get this news that this man might be gone for the regular season? No Skip, they're not winning no title. Now if he comes back, if he's 100%, there's a slight chance ... They're gonna probably lose some ground in the standings. It didn't hurt their chances, it doomed their chances."

Full video:

The Suns fear Kevin Durant suffered a Grade 2 ankle sprain and could miss 4-6 weeks:

“This dooms their chances. Like Clorox, they now have a 99.9 chance of not winning the title.” — @ShannonSharpe pic.twitter.com/42wSl5Yxfs
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) March 9, 2023

The Suns announced yesterday that Durant would be re-evaluated in three weeks. 21 days removed would be March 30. In a best case scenario where Durant returns that quickly, he would have six games left in the regular season.