The Phoenix Suns will have to get through Friday night without Oso Ighodaro, who was officially ruled out for the matchup with the Golden State Warriors.
Ighodaro had initially been listed as doubtful with an oblique strain, but the Suns bumped him to out in their injury update earlier in the afternoon. He joins fellow center Mark Williams on the sideline, while guard Luke Kennard is questionable.
That leaves Khaman Maluach as the likeliest option to start at center. He already filled that role on Wednesday, when Ighodaro was available before exiting just before halftime.
Ighodaro had been widely expected to open the season as the team’s starting center, especially with Williams expected to need months to recover from shoulder surgery. Last season, the third-year center earned trust from head coach Jordan Ott in that role, even though Maluach got the nod in Phoenix’s season opener in Portland.
Ott told reporters the Suns believe Ighodaro managed to avoid something major. The team had already been dealing with a preseason right hip injury that kept him out of the finale last weekend, and this new issue was labeled an oblique injury.
"Oso, pretty good report overall. It's an oblique strain.
He'll be out for sure tomorrow," Ott told Suns reporters on Friday. "But we hope it's just more day-to-day than long-term.
I think we avoided something serious ... It looks like it's not as serious.
It looks like we avoided something."
Phoenix is back in action Monday in Oklahoma City before returning home to face the Denver Nuggets on Friday.
Maluach, for his part, said he’s keeping the same mindset either way.
"It's the same approach for me. It don't matter whether Oso is out or whether he's playing, we both have the same approach," Maluach told reporters earlier in the day (h/t Duane Rankin).
"We're good players. We're there for our team.
We're great teammates. We're going to do whatever it takes to win.
It's not like, oh Oso is out now, let me take a bunch of shots or bad shots. It's still the same learning process for me."
The Suns are trying to shake off the rough loss to the Trail Blazers on Wednesday, but they’ll have to do it without Ighodaro tonight. Even so, Golden State arrives at Mortgage Matchup Center short-handed as well, giving Phoenix little excuse not to take care of business.
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