These NBA playoffs hurt
They hurt too damn much as the Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza details
Even with zero rooting interest in the Boston/Cleveland series, Monday's pregame bulletin as tipoff approached could only be described as deflating.
Not again.
Injuries have been a constant throughout this NBA postseason since the start of the Play-In round, when Miami's Jimmy Butler and New Orleans' Zion Williamson immediately sustained serious setbacks that left both unable to play in Round 1 even after their teams somehow survived the Play-In pressure cooker without them.
There has sadly been little let up.
Injuries always factor heavily into the annual title race, but the sheer volume of nightly absentees this spring ... it often feels like we discuss nothing else.
Witness this dispatch from me not long ago on April 29:
This Week In Basketball can only say that talking and writing so much about NBA playoff injuries is bumming us out
These depressingly injury-strewn NBA playoffs aren't even safe for the coaches anymore. Poor Chris Finch. Minnesota's first coach to taste the second round of the playoffs since Flip Saunders way back in 2004 didn't even make it to the final buzzer of the Timberwolves' sweep-clinching win Sunday night at Phoenix because Mike Conley — also pretty much known as the nicest Wolf in the world — careened into Finch on the sideline in what became literal crunch time. The accidental collision left Finch with a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee.
Mitchell's woe prompted me to ask my pal Jeff Stotts, who curates the invaluable InStreetClothes.com data base, to help me assemble a just-the-facts-ma’am list of every player who has missed at least one playoff game through injury since Play-In games commenced April 16 … just to record it one place for posterity.
It's a list with more than 50 names and thus too long to publish in its entirety. Highlighted (lowlighted?) here instead are 10 high-profile injury exits this postseason from players we actually did get to see participate (to some degree):
Butler (sprained right knee)
Williamson (left hamstring strain)
The Clippers' Kawhi Leonard (right knee inflammation)
Boston's Kristaps Porziņģis (left calf strain)
Cleveland's Jarrett Allen (right rib contusion)
Milwaukee's Damian Lillard (left Achilles strain)
Dallas' Maxi Kleber (right shoulder sprain)
New York's Mitchell Robinson (left ankle stress fracture)
New York's OG Anunoby (right hamstring strain)
Mitchell (left calf strain)
Excluded from that group, of course, are players who couldn’t play at all in the playoffs or the Play-In round because of injuries sustained during the regular season that carried into the postseason (like Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, Sacramento's Malik Monk and the Los Angeles Lakers' Jarred Vanderbilt) … or stars like Philadelphia's Joel Embiid (Bell’s Palsy), Dallas' Luka Dončić (sprained right knee) and Denver's Jamal Murray (left calf contusion) who have managed to stay on the floor despite worrisome ailments that have messed with their effectiveness.
Make. It. Stop.
The lone beneficiary from all this mess appears to be the Celtics … even without Porziņģis. They faced the Butler-less Heat in Round 1. They should soon put away the short-handed Cavaliers in Round 2. Then they’ll see the very banged-up Knicks — or the inexperienced Pacers — in Round 3.
A spot in the NBA Finals, furthermore, feels well within reach for Boston without having to see the Bucks or the 76ers at all.
#injuriessuck
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An unavoidable question in Cavsland
Have we seen the last of Donovan Mitchell in a Cleveland uniform?
It's certainly a scenario Cavaliers fans would rather not contemplate when their team still has playoff life.
However …
It's a hard-to-dodge question now after the Cavaliers lost two games at home to the top-seeded Celtics and might not have Mitchell available for the Game 5 in Boston they must win to keep the season going. A slew of left leg ailments has plagued Mitchell all season and make it difficult to imagine him being able to recover in time for Wednesday's elimination game.
So …
As we've been writing it all season: Cleveland would have little alternative but to explore the trade market for the 27-year-old before next season if the All-Star guard declines to sign a contract extension this summer. Fresh off leading Cleveland to a Game 7 victory over Orlando that clinched the Cavaliers' first playoff series triumph without LeBron James since 1993, Mitchell has just one season left on his contract under Cleveland's control ($35 million in 2024-25) before deciding on a $37.1 million player option for 2025-26.
The latest on Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers' true trade deadline intentions
The Cleveland Cavaliers, as we speak, are enjoying some welcome distance from the typical trade noise of January. The Cavaliers are in Paris, some 4,000 miles away from home, readying for the NBA’s third staging of a regular-season game in France since January 2020. It’ll be Cleveland vs. Brooklyn in this one.
Numbers Game
🏀 6
Important playoff reminder: If any team apart from Denver wins this season's crown, we'll crown our sixth different NBA champion in six seasons. That last happened from 1975 (Warriors) to 1980 (Lakers) … with the Celtics (1976), Trail Blazers (1977), Wizards (1978 as the Bullets) and SuperSonics (1979) also winning it all along the way.
🏀 3.0
A mere 3.0% shot to win the No. 1 overall pick in Sunday's NBA Draft lottery established Atlanta as the fifth-most unlikely team to vault to the top of the draft board since the lottery's inception in 1985. Orlando landed the No. 1 overall pick in 1993 with a mere 1.52% chance to win, followed by Cleveland (2014) and Chicago (2008) at 1.7% and Cleveland again at 2.8% in 2011.
🏀 2
My buddy Keith Smith assembled a handy list in the wake of the lottery to break down how many draft picks each team holds this June. Two teams — San Antonio and Portland — are poised to make four picks each. The Spurs currently have Nos. 4, 8, 35 and 48; it's Nos. 7, 14, 34 and 40 for the Blazers.
🏀 5
Five teams, Smith notes, currently hold three picks. They are: Indiana (36, 49, 50), Memphis (9, 39, 57), New York (24, 25, 38), Utah (10, 29, 32) and Washington (2, 26, 51).
🏀 13
Thirteen teams currently own two picks. They are: Boston (30, 54), Charlotte (6, 42), Denver (28, 56), Detroit (5, 53), Houston, (3, 44), LA Lakers (17, 55), Miami (15, 43), Milwaukee (23, 33), Minnesota, (27, 37), Orlando (18, 47), Philadelphia (16, 41), Sacramento (13, 45) and Toronto (19, 31).
🏀 9
Nine teams, including the Hawks, currently hold one pick. That list: Atlanta (1), Chicago (11), Cleveland (20), Dallas (58), Golden State (52), LA Clippers (46), New Orleans (21), Oklahoma City (12) and Phoenix (22).
🏀 0
Only one team, per Smith, currently holds zero picks in the two-day draft scheduled for June 26-27. That team is Brooklyn, who rose to No. 3 overall from a projected position of No. 9 in Sunday's lottery but must surrender that pick to Houston as a condition of the teams' James Harden trade in January 2021.
🏀 1968
The Wizards will be drafting No. 2 overall for the first time since 1968 .... when, still known as the Baltimore Bullets, they selected future MVP Wes Unseld. (The first pick in draft that was Elvin Hayes, who would eventually team with Unseld to lead the franchise to its only championship in 1977-78.)
🏀 54
After posing the league's worst record for the second consecutive season and increasing its win total over the past three seasons to just 54, Detroit wound up with the No. 5 overall pick for the third successive year since winning the draft lottery in 2021 and selecting Cade Cunningham.
🏀 13
Longtime colleague Royce Webb assembled an interesting piece last week (above) to examine the increased turnover seen in recent seasons in terms of teams reaching the conference finals. Minnesota, Oklahoma City and the New York/Indiana winner have the potential to increase the number of franchises that have reached the NBA’s Final Four over the past five seasons from 10 to 13 depending on second-round results.
🏀 11
That number is guaranteed to reach 11 because either the Knicks or the Pacers will classify as a conference finals newcomer. If the Timberwolves and Thunder also advance and that number gets to 13 teams, according to Webb’s research, it would match the highest total across any five seasons in league history.
🏀 4
For four consecutive postseasons from 2019 to 2022, zero teams repeated in reaching the conference finals and seven different franchises reached the Western Conference finals. The 2019 Final Four featured Toronto, Milwaukee, Golden State and Portland. The 2020 Final Four in the Walt Disney World bubble in Orlando sported Miami, Boston, Denver and the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2021: Milwaukee, Atlanta, Phoenix and the LA Clippers. In 2022: Boston, Miami, Golden State and Dallas.
🏀 4
The Celtics, by contrast, are one win away against the ailing Cavaliers from reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the fourth successive season and fifth time in a six-season span.
So the defending champions benefit the most…
These injuries have sucked much of the life out of what might otherwise have been an exciting postseason. Not sure what can be done about it (because I’m not sure anyone knows exactly why this is happening), but it’s unfortunate nonetheless.