Playoffs enter survivor mode
The NBA champion this season will be the last team standing.
Perhaps literally.
Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers missed Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals with a knee sprain and amid concerns that it could be a far more significant injury. Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving has been sidelined by a badly sprained ankle. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid is playing through a meniscus tear. Atlanta’s Trae Young is putting heat packs on his shoulder that appear to be roughly the size of a small vehicle. Brooklyn’s James Harden came back despite an ailing hamstring.
Those are big names, All-star names, all nowhere near their best right now because of injuries, and there were plenty of other top players — the Lakers’ duo of Lebron James and Anthony Davis, Denver’s Jamal Murray and Miami’s Victor Oladipo among them — that also either limped to the finish of their seasons or saw them end prematurely because of serious injury.
“This is the best time of the year for our league and fans but missing a ton of our fav players,” James tweeted on Wednesday. “It’s insane. If there’s one person that know about the body and how it works all year round it’s ME! I speak for the health of all our players and I hate to see this many injuries this time of the year. Sorry fans wish you guys were seeing all your fav guys right now.”
Consider the 27 players who were selected for the All-star Game this season.
Leonard becomes the eighth of those to have to miss a playoff game this season because of injury, joining Davis, Utah teammates Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell, Boston’s Jaylen Brown, Harden, Irving and Embiid.
Phoenix’s Chris Paul might become the ninth on that list. He’s not hurt. He’s in protocols — that other thing that the league has had to fight with all season.
Even though the arenas are full and masks are now largely optional, the pandemic is still here and might have a say in how the rest of these playoffs go as well. Paul, who is vaccinated, has entered the protocols presumably because of a positive test — only one player tested positive this week, and he’s the only one in the protocols.