Kevin Durant must wait at least three more weeks to make his home debut for the Phoenix Suns after injuring himself in the warm-up against Oklahoma City.
Durant sprained his left ankle before Suns’ 132-101 NBA win over the Thunder.
The 34-year-old joined Phoenix in a February trade from the Brooklyn Nets.
Durant scored 23 points on his debut at Charlotte and has averaged 26.7 points in the three away games he has played for the Suns, who sit second in the Western Conference Pacific division.
The forward is enduring an injury-plagued campaign, having already spent around eight weeks on the sidelines due to a knee sprain while playing for Brooklyn.
Elsewhere, feuding rivals Dillon Brooks and Draymond Green had to be separated from each other by officials during reigning champions Golden State Warriors’ defeat at Memphis Grizzlies.
The pair, who traded comments in the build-up to the game, were involved in a tense confrontation in the second quarter of Grizzlies’ 131-110 victory.
Memphis scored 48 points in the first quarter to set the platform for the win, achieved without star point guard Ja Morant, who has been suspended for allegedly holding a gun in a nightclub.
Warriors, champions in six of the past eight seasons, have lost eight successive games on the road and their away record slipped to 7-26 with another defeat.
The Milwaukee Bucks extended their lead at the top of the Eastern Conference as a 118-113 win over Brooklyn improved their record to 48-18.
Sacramento Kings edged out the New York Knicks 122-117 while the Indiana Pacers needed overtime to beat the Houston Rockets 134-125.
