Phoenix Suns‘ guard Bradley Beal will miss Thursday’s home game against New Orleans as a late scratch with left calf tightness.

Beal is coming off a 24-point effort in Tuesday’s 151-148 overtime loss at Memphis as he played a season-high 43 minutes. Beal also delivered a season-high 11 assists in the defeat.

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“I don’t think there was one thing,” Suns coach Mike Budenholzer said before Thursday’s game when asked how Beal hurt his calf. “In the course of an NBA game, you take a lot of hits, a lot of things happen. He left a lot out there on the court.”

Beal wasn’t on the initial injury report released Wednesday. Monte Morris (low back tightness) and Cody Martin (sports hernia) were ruled out.

Then Beal was added to the report as questionable after Thursday’s morning shootaround at the team’s practice facility.

“Came in (Wednesday), had a great day on the (trainer) table,” Budenholzer continued. “Put a lot of time in and again this morning, put a lot of time in. He’s not able to go. I don’t think it was one incident. Just a physical game, the wear and tear of a game. His calf kind of had some tightness.”

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Beal is averaging 18 points on 50.4% shooting in 41 games in his second season with the Suns. Connecting on 40.7% of his 3s, Beal was benched Jan. 6 at Philadelphia, but he returned to the starting lineup Saturday at Chicago.

He’s averaging 24.5 points, going 8-of-17 from 3 in the four games since the NBA All-Star break.

Tyus Jones is back in the starting lineup for Thursday’s game along with Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Bol Bol and Nick Richards. Beal replaced Jones in the starting lineup at Chicago.

Beal played 41 minutes in Sunday’s loss at Toronto before playing 43 Tuesday, marking the first time he’s played 40-plus minutes in consecutive regular season games since November 2022 when he played 49 minutes Nov. 18 versus Miami and 41 Nov. 20 against Charlotte while with Washington.

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Beal did it in last year’s playoffs, logging 42 minutes in Game 2 and 43 in Game 3 against Minnesota. The Timberwolves swept them in the first round.

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 Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns guard Bradley Beal late scratch vs Pelicans with calf tightness