Deandre Ayton Likely To Return For Blazers Back-to-Back

Phoenix Suns Deandre Ayton appears to have recovered from an ankle sprain in time to play the Portland Trail Blazers in a baseball series “back-to-back” this weekend, according to Duane Rankin at AZ Central.

Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams didn’t have a “definitive answer” on whether Deandre Ayton will play Friday against Portland, but the Suns starting center is trending in that direction.

“We’ll see,” Williams said after Thursday’s practice. “He went through a good practice today, but we’ll see how he responds to the practice. We don’t have like a definitive answer just yet.”

Williams said Ayton fully participated in Thursday’s practice. Ayton was scheduled for a re-evaluation a week after suffering a left ankle sprain last Friday against New Orleans.

Earlier reports suggested the dominant big man would miss both the Friday and Saturday games in Phoenix with the complaint.

The first overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft has been averaging 15.4 points and 8.2 rebounds on 54.8% shooting from the field in 26.0 minutes per game over five starts for the Suns so far this season.

Nurkic tallied 20 points and 17 rebounds on October 21 when the Blazers defeated the Suns 113-111 in overtime at the Moda Center. The Big Bosnian’s form appears to be trending upwards, after he put up 23 points on 100 percent (3 of 3) from behind the three point line, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal against the Memphis Grizzlies last night.