Bradley Beal finally makes Phoenix Suns debut after back issues sidelined him for weeks

CHICAGO – Bradley Beal hadn’t played in an NBA game since Oct. 16 against Portland in the preseason.

That’s way too long for someone who was looking so forward to this season of change for him.

Beal came to Phoenix in a blockbuster offseason deal after 11 seasons in Washington looking to play a prominent role in the Suns making a championship push, but he’s instead been hampered by low-back issues that kept him sidelined through their first seven regular season games.

He’s been wanting to play, been frustrated by the rehab process and the unknown of the injury.

Seeing the Suns have a 1-4 stretch left him even more heated, but Beal had a pregame workout before Saturday’s loss at Philadelphia that proved to be pivotal point in his return.

Four days later, Beal made his Suns debut Wednesday against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

Finally.

“Felt like I haven’t played in a minute,” a smiling Beal said. “Felt like I haven’t played in a while, but more than anything, it felt good just to be out there with the guys.”

Beal finished his debut with 13 points on 3-of-12 shooting in helping the Suns (4-4) outlast the Bulls, 116-115, in overtime to conclude a three-game road trip with consecutive victories for the first time this season.

“He was good in stretches and you can tell he was a little bit rusty in stretches, which is to be expected,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said.

Devin Booker is ruled out Friday’s In-Season Tournament game against the Lakers at Footprint Center with a right calf strain suffered in last week’s home loss to the San Antonio Spurs that's since sidelined him Phoenix's last three games.

Booker got in a workout before Wednesday’s game. That’s a sign of progress, but Vogel said after the game there’s no “firm timetable” for his return.

Could be better, could be worse, but Bradley Beal is back. He's listed a probable for Friday's game with low back spasms.

“Just somebody else the defense is scared of,” said Kevin Durant, the only one of the Suns' Big 3 All-Stars to play in every regular season game so far. “Somebody that can score on all three levels. Brad going downhill is a problem. So as much as we can get him going downhill and also just setting him up in some iso so he can beat his man and create for us, that’s good.”

The road back

Beal made his way back from an injury that’s not only tricky, but unfamiliar to him.

“One, I’ve never had a back injury, so I don’t really know how to approach it,” said Beal, who played in just 50 games last season and 40 in 2021-22 for the Wizards.

Beal hasn’t played more than 60 games in a season since 2018-19, when he played in all 82 regular season games.

“I don’t really know how to deal with it,” he continued. “In most cases, it’s a fine line between you don’t want to push through something and making it get worse or is it you may have to push through. It’s like a I-have-no-idea type of thing where you’re kind of approaching it like it’s a day-to-day and just treating it the best we can.”

Ranging between what the Suns ruled as back tightness and back spasms, Beal was limited to two preseason games.

His teammates certainly wanted him back ASAP, but they weren’t pressing Beal to return.

“It happens to everybody coming back from injury,” Suns wing Josh Okogie said. “You’re stuck between trying to make sure we’re 100% and trying to get back at the same time because everybody here loves the game, loves to hoop. We tell him, if you’re not 100%, we’re going to hold down the fort for you until you get back.”

The Philadelphia workout was one of many Beal underwent, but that specific session set the stage for what Vogel called a “buildup” from Sunday to Tuesday to be ready Wednesday.

“Got some really good work in Monday and Tuesday and felt good from the work,” Vogel said before Wednesday’s game. “So, he was available.”

Beal had to trust what the Suns were telling him throughout the process in making his return.

“Every workout was different,” Beal said. “You have good days, bad days in terms of recovery and how I felt afterwards. I think that was the biggest challenge. I can push through any workout. I can be hardheaded and go play 30 minutes when I’m not supposed to, but how I feel after that, probably not the greatest. That’s where I lean on our staff and our doctors to be the voice for me because I’ll be hardheaded and get out there and play and that probably won’t be the best thing.”

Fast start, went ice cold

Beal started his debut fast, hitting two straight corner 3s that helped spark a 22-4 Phoenix start as he shot 3-of-6 from deep on the night.

Dude gets buckets.

That’s what Beal does, but he also found Jusuf Nurkic for a couple of early scores inside that jumped started what wound up being a 20-point, 17-rebound performance for the 7-footer.

Nurkic has been eager to share the floor with the Big 3 of Booker, Durant and Beal in the regular season.

In due time, but Nurkic was excited about Beal’s return.

“It’s Bradley Beal right,” Nurkic said. “It’s great to have him back, for sure. Another ball handler, another 30-point scorer.”

After that type of performance in which he had more room to operate with the presence of Beal and Durant, Nurkic could get used to this – as can the rest of the Suns.

“He didn’t shoot it the way he wanted to, but you could tell every time he had the ball, committing guys to him, it really stretched out the defense,” said Suns guard Grayson Allen, who made a career-high eight 3s Wednesday in scoring a game-high 26 points.

“When he’s coming off his screens, he’s pulling a big all the way over to him. So he was really creating a lot of openings, a lot of space for the other guys on the floor.”

Beal had that familiar bounce in his stride going early, but he then went ice cold, missing his next six shots in the first half.

“I don’t know, a lot of stuff,” Beal said. “I won’t talk about my favorite refs out there.”

Beal had multiple and continual conversations with the referees as Kevin Cutler, JB DeRosa and Sha'Rae Mitchell officiated the game, but he also noted how poor spacing factored into his off shooting.

“We’ve got to work out a little kinks,” Beal said. “Few kinks, but for the most part, I loved every shot I had minus the little hand grenades (of launching as the shot clock expired), but for the most part, my catch-and-shoots felt great. Free throws were good and my basket attacks were cool, finding guys. It’s a lot to build on.”

'It held up'

Beal also lost his footing going after a loose ball that had him make a sudden movement with his back awkwardly twisting. Beal pounded the ball hard on the floor a couple of times in reaction, but he stayed in the game.

“It held up,” Beal said about his back. “We’re being precautionary with the minutes and all that, but it felt good.”

Beal went into the game with a minute restriction of essentially 24 minutes. The Suns stuck to it, but Beal sitting long stretches led to some back tightness.

“We’re playing him honestly in a way that it’s tough to get a rhythm,” Vogel said. “If we’re going to keep him at a certain amount of minutes, and not have him sit over there 12 minutes game time and 25 minutes real time and have the back tighten up. It’s a lot of in and out. So it’s just the nature of trying to keep his minutes low, but I really loved how he competed.”

Beal had some tough moments in the second half, too.

Took a hit to the face on a drive – and an ensuing hard fall.

Went 1-of-3 from the field, but Beal also had a huge strip of Jevon Carter that led to Jordan Goodwin’s transition 3 to give the Suns a two-point lead with 9:06 remaining in regulation.

Beal came out of the game with 7:59 left in the fourth to reach 21 minutes. The Suns kept some tick tocks in the storage just in case they wanted to put him back in the game late in the fourth.

Sure enough, Beal checked back in the game with 2:15 remaining in regulation.

“We scripted it out so he would get to where he got with two or three minutes to play and be able to be in there if it was close,” Vogel said. “He’s trying to get to 24 minutes or so, in that range.”

Vogel worked him and Okogie for offense/defense in the final 25 seconds of regulation.

More Suns: What to know about Devin Booker's injury timeline

'Imperfect situation'

“It’s tough to do while letting the guy try to get a rhythm,” Vogel continued. “There’s all these talks and we saw with the Clippers, they’d start Kawhi Leonard, sat the whole first half, use them all in the second. There’s a lot of ways to do it. We could’ve played him the first and shut it down. It’s just an imperfect situation, but we tried to stretch it out and have him available down the stretch.”

It was a mixed bag from Beal, who had to watch overtime from the bench. The Suns predetermined Tuesday that with Beal having a back injury, he wouldn’t play in an OT situation.

“When we got there, we knew what we had to do,” Vogel said.

Goodwin, who came over from Washington in the trade with Beal, replaced him in the lineup.

“A little frustrating,” Beal said. “It’s life. Glad we pulled out the win. That’s why we have a great team with a lot of depth. Next man up mentality. Guys stepped up and made good plays.”

Have opinions about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Bradley Beal makes his Phoenix Suns regular season debut