The excitement surrounding Kevin Durant facing the Brooklyn Nets for the first time since his trade to the Phoenix Suns last February has waned, with his availability for the occasion questionable.

Durant has missed the last two games due to an injured left ankle, and his availability for Wednesday’s game against the Suns may not be known until close to tip-off.

Durant was ruled out of the Suns’ 119-116 home triumph against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday after testing his ankle.

Suns coach Frank Vogel simply stated that Durant was not prepared to play. He’s waiting to see what happens in Wednesday’s game.

“Possibly on KD,” Vogel said of Durant’s participation. “We’ll see where his ankle is.”

The game on Wednesday has gotten a lot of attention because of Durant’s prospective return to face the Nets, a team he disliked before being traded to the Suns. He was expected to be part of a ‘Big Three’ dynasty in Brooklyn alongside Kyrie Irving and James Harden, but the experiment was a flop.

“Yeah, there just wasn’t any consistency, no continuity on who we were as a team,” Durant previously told The New York Post. “When you want to win a championship, you’ve got to build an identity from Day 1, and it was just a lot of circumstances that were out of the players’ control that got in the way of us building our continuity.”

Durant appeared in 129 games over three and a half seasons with the Nets. He missed the 2019-20 season due to an Achilles tear suffered in the Warriors’ 2019 NBA Finals, and he didn’t play in more than 55 games in each of the two seasons that followed.

The Suns saw Durant as an important ingredient in their quest for an NBA championship. As part of the deal, they handed up teenage forwards Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson.

Bridges is averaging 23.1 points and 6.0 rebounds in 22 games this season and could be considered for the All-Star team. In 15 games, Johnson has averaged 14.7 points and 5.7 rebounds.

Both players are excited to return to Phoenix for the first time since the trade. Bridges spent 4 1/2 seasons with the Suns, while Johnson spent 3 1/2.

“Yeah, I’m excited. “It was just a lot of years and a lot of friends,” Bridges told the Post. “There were a lot of fans throughout the entire journey.” It will be thrilling.

“I’m excited,” Johnson told The Washington Post. When you play in a city for a while, you build respect for the people and the city. And, as ridiculous as it seems, you have no idea. That final game I played there, I had no idea it would be my last in a Suns uniform. So it’ll be entertaining.”

Despite losing 131-118 to the Sacramento Kings in the first game of a five-game road trip on Monday, Brooklyn has won six of its last eight games.

Bridges scored 22 points and has now scored at least 20 points in six consecutive games.

Sacramento made a franchise-high 25 3-pointers against the Nets.

The Suns’ ‘Big Three’ of Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal were set to play in the same game for the first time Tuesday after Beal (back) was cleared to play after a 12-game layoff. But Durant’s injury put an end to that.

Beal scored 16 points in 27 minutes against the Warriors in his first game since November 12.

“He needs to learn his teammates and where they’re going to be, but I’m very excited to have him out there,” Vogel told ESPN.

Suns guard Josh Okogie has a hip injury and is doubtful to play on Wednesday. Grayson Allen (groin) will miss his third game in a row.

Phoenix has now defeated Brooklyn four times in a row.