How health is dictating who wins the NBA Championship | Good Word with Goodwill
Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill and NBA contributor Tom Haberstroh discuss the recent trend of injuries impacting the NBA postseason. Hear the full conversation on “Good Word with Goodwill” - part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Playoff games lost due to injury for players and how it's up 22% and basically how the last four teams remaining are the healthiest teams in the league.
And that, that is not a coincidence.
Yeah, man, like, uh, we, we watched that Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks Series, right?
And it was just, it was tough to watch the Knicks go through that Josh Hart with the thing on his, on his, uh, abdominals.
Then Jalen Brunson, he's out with a foot injury.
No wait, he broke his hand and it's just like one thing after another and I started looking at the data to see if injuries were up.
And indeed, we are now after, uh, Tuesday night's game one with Chris Aper Zing out and with Benedict, uh Mathern when he's out that has now pushed the playoff total of player games lost due to injury or illness to 202 100 times.
Have we had a player who's been out due to injury?
And that is eclipsing last year's total in the entire postseason.
So to put in perspective last year for the four rounds of the playoffs, there were 100 and 99 player games lost due to injury and we've already hit 200 um, which is about 2.9 per team per game guys who are out.
And that is Vinnie, one of the highest rates we've seen if not the highest in a non COVID year.
So 2020 COVID year, uh, not just about injuries but also, you know, the COVID regulations and protocols.
Uh, this is trending to be the most injury riddled postseason, um, of the last decade plus and even going back, I don't have the date in front of me, but this didn't happen, like whoever was the favorite going into the postseason, usually won the title or at least it was very predictive.
Like who, who is the juggernaut?
They're probably gonna make it to the finals in the last six years.
Vinnie, we've had a new champion and we're gonna have a new champion this year and a lot of it people are saying it's because of financial tax, uh, penalties and the CB a clamping down on 2nd April.
I'm saying, look at the injuries like so many injuries are happening every year in the postseason, whether it's the 2021 Brooklyn Nets, uh, when they had Kyrie and James Harden get hurt.
They were the favorites going into the postseason last year.
The Milwaukee Bucks were the favorite going into the postseason.
They get, uh, they lose in the first round because Giannis is hurt so many of the playoffs so much of the playoffs.
Now, I feel like are dictated not by who's better, but who's healthier and to an extent that's always been the case.
But more so in the last, you know, 656 years, I feel like that's like you said, I feel like that's always been a major subplot of the postseason is who's healthier who's playing, who's as close to 100% as possible.
Now, it's a matter of who's actually on the floor compared to who's not.