Suns Reveal Royce O'Neale's Final Status vs Nuggets

The Phoenix Suns will be getting a key player back tonight against the Denver Nuggets.

After missing the last three game with left knee soreness, Royce O'Neale has been upgraded from probable to available for tonight's matchup.

O'Neale had played the first 69 games of the season, starting 64 of them, before this injury and is averaging a career-high 9.9 points while shooting 40.3% from 3 to go along with 4.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 29.1 minutes per game this year.

The Suns (40-32) still have a lengthy injury report outside of O'Neale with Dillon Brooks (left hand fracture), Mark Williams (left foot third metatarsal stress reaction), Amir Coffey (left ankle sprain) and Haywood Highsmith (right knee injury management) continuing to be out, and Ryan Dunn (right groin soreness).

"If you look at our injury report, there's a lot of size on our injury report. He's one piece to that," Ott said of O'Neale before Phoenix's 120-98 win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. "I think he does rebound well for his size, it's not only his size, it's his leadership, it's his spacing ability, it's his end-of-game play. We need all of those things at this point."

The Nuggets (44-28) will be without Peyton Watson (right hamstring injury management) against Phoenix.

What Suns Are Getting Back With Royce O'Neale

Phoenix had lost five game in a row before the win Sunday over Toronto and now will try to integrate O'Neale back into the lineup.

The Suns have had a very small starting five since Brooks went out with his fractured hand and will likely put O'Neale back into the starting group alongside Collin Gillespie, Devin Booker, Jalen Green and Oso Ighodaro.

Phoenix's defense will be its biggest key tonight going against the No. 1-rated offense of the Nuggets, and O'Neale will be a huge piece of this, as he is typically the primary defender in this starting lineup.

O'Neale has seen a lot more space offensively playing next to both Booker and Green, which has allowed for some big 3-point outbursts, as he is 19-for-39 (48.7%) from deep in his last five games played.

The Suns need every win they can get at this point of the season with them sitting 3.5 games back of the sixth seed in the West with only 10 games left to play.

They will hope O'Neale returning will help them as they gear up for the postseason and try to get everyone back healthy before then.