Oso Ighodaro will start Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Thunder, giving Phoenix a familiar frontcourt option as it closes out the regular season without its usual starters. Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman reported the decision.
The Suns were locked into the seventh seed before tipoff and are resting their starters for the finale, leaving Ighodaro in the opening five for the matchup in Oklahoma City. This is not new territory for him: across 23 starts this season, Ighodaro has averaged 8.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.3 stocks in 27.5 minutes, production that has given Phoenix usable minutes when it has needed them.
The timing matters because Sunday is the last stop before the games that count for Phoenix in the postseason bracket. With the seed already set, the Suns have chosen caution over routine, and Ighodaro is the one asked to absorb the minutes that normally belong to higher-usage starters.
That leaves a straightforward tension in the finale: the Suns are treating the game like a formality, but the lineup still has to function against the Thunder. Ighodaro’s season line suggests Phoenix has reason to trust him, yet a rested regular-season finale is also the kind of setting that can expose how thin the margin is when a team removes its anchors.
For Ighodaro, the start is another chance to turn a backup role into something bigger than one night. For the Suns, it is a final test of how much they can ask from the players who have carried them through the season when the rotation is no longer intact.
