NBA injury crisis becomes playoffs to survive the strongest

The NBA final Four is set because the race for this year's title on Knicks, Thunder, Pacers and Timberwolves, the four teams to avoid the injury error during the playoffs.

Here is what we learned from the first two rounds of this year's playoffs before the conference final.

The playoffs are the survival of the strongest

In the first two rounds of the playoffs we saw a number of teams that were decimated by premature injuries.

The Golden State Warriors were bundled by the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games after Stephen Curry had suffered a thigh injury in game 1 and missed the rest of the series.

Cleveland, the top seeds in the east, was also run by injuries in five games by Indiana as an all-star trio Darius Garland, Evan Mabley and Donovan Mitchell during the series.

Boston, the defending champion, received a hammer stroke when Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles from game 4 when the Celtics went to the Knicks. Tatum is expected to miss most of the next season.

Denver fought in an epic series against the 68-win-Oklahoma City Thunder, only to injure Aaron Gordon in the dwindling moments of game 6.

Tatum is one of two players who suffer in these playoffs Achilles injuries after the Damian Lillard von Milwaukee suffered the same fate in the first round.

Five different players, including Tatum and Lillard, have torn their Achilles torn this season. Three more – Kyrie Irving, De'anthony Melton and Moritz Wagner, have torn their ACLs.

The increased number of serious injuries in the lower leg is proof of how difficult it is to play today's pace and space era of basketball, in which the players are able to protect almost every position on the floor.

The players have to become wild and go through several screens at high speed at a certain possession. If you do this tired in the playoffs, the likelihood of injury increases.

The coaches face the riddle of how many minutes to play their stars with 82 games during the regular season. In Cleveland, the trainer of the year, Kenny Atkinson, focused on managing the workload of his team, just to see his stars collapse in the playoffs. Mitchell's 31.4 minutes per game were the most for every Cavalier player in the regular season.

Conversely, Knick's coach Tom Thibodeau was accelerated throughout the season about his starters who played big minutes. Instead of setting up his team, the large minute charge seems to have the kinks well to do to play strenuous playoff games.

Three Knicks starter – Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and OG Anunoby – ranked most minutes in the top 10, which were played during the regular season, with the 3,036 minutes of Bridges at the top.

It is no surprise that the last four teams in the conference finale are all who have so far escaped the injury error.

The regular season really doesn't matter

Every year it is annoying to see how basketball looks like a completely different sport like a completely sport as soon as the playoffs get going, and this year was another example.

The Knicks were mocked all year round because they were entered against the season against the Celtics, Cavaliers and Donner with 0-10 during the regular season, but turned the script upside down by eliminating the defending champions in six games in their second round. You could possibly improve this recording if you are confronted with OKC in the final.

Minnesota and Indiana both stumbled out of the goal to start the season, but started at the right time to achieve the final of the conference while completing more fed opponents on the way.

Cleveland put together one of the best regular seasonal offenses in the history of the league, just to see him completely from the Pacers.

When the playoffs roll for everything, everything becomes a pure abrasion war. The teams have longer to scot each other, so beautiful egalitarian offensive systems have to need counters for counters. Each action at both ends of the soil must be replicated in the playoffs with double or triple triple of aggression.

During the regular season, the Cavs played the ball at both ends and whip the ball around and cut them aggressively without him. This stood out in the regular season, but when he was confronted with the Huge defense of the Pacers, the beautiful exercise obligation of Drive-and-Kick, which Cleveland served well throughout the season, was nowhere to be seen.

Indiana and New York have to receive both recognition for the way they took the opportunity to achieve the conference final. As soon as the Pacers and Knicks felt blood in the water in the form of hobbling opponents, they rammed their advantage home in a ruthless way. So it is worth being competent. If you stay on the hunt, you are a little luck of injury from achieving the conference final or the final.

There is no lot of film or practices that can replicate the intensity that playoff basketball is. Every possession is important, regardless of whether it is the first of the quarter, right after a break or in the last seconds of a quarter. The most successful playoff teams are constantly counting these little margins.

There are no lengthy rest between the games when the first round ends, no chance of catching teams at the back of the long road trips or on the second night of a back-to-back game.

The NBA has to find a way to make the regular season more sensible. The introduction of the NBA Cup, which was played in the first months of the regular season, was an attempt to meet the games in the early season.

The easy way to do this is to reduce the number of games in the regular season. Unfortunately, the teams themselves will never agree to the turnover that they all lose if they lose home games.

Apart from The Thunder, who played all over the season to register the best record of the league, the teams that played the best in the playoffs are those who apparently have up and down in the regular season. It will be interesting to see whether the best teams in the league take the foot of the gas a little more off the gas during the season section in front of the all-star.

Next year will look very different

It is unbelievable how much a team's playoff can turn around what his following season looks like.

The Celtics are the biggest example of this after Tatum's unfortunate injury. It is not only unlikely that the Celtics will win titles in a row, their entire effort window has a cloud of uncertainty that is now hovers over it.

Regardless of how this playoff run ended, a heavenly tax bill meant that Boston would make changes to its title core of 2024. What does it look like now when Tatum misses the majority, if not all of the 2025-26 season?

The Celtics have some options. You can simply continue with the majority of this current core next season, hope to float about 50 victories in the regular season and to hope that Tatum can play a role in the playoffs of the next year.

Boston could also be super aggressive by acting from Jayl Brown or Derrick White against pieces. The Celtics own their 2026 First-Rounder. Could you take a kind of year as the 1996-97 Spurs did to land Tim Duncan, or like the warriors in 2020, when Stephen Curry missed most of the season?

The violation of Tatum has also equipped the rest of the Eastern Conference.

Does Cleveland decide that Cleveland and her top Eastern Conference -Rival decides to stand and try to trace him with his “Core Four”, which has now been neglected in three player playoff series in a row?

Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose goats were beaten in the first round, looks at his own future. Does he believe that he can run in the east or bites the ball and asks for a trade?

If the Cavs decide that your current core is not good enough, you could possibly send Milwaukee to a trade, the Giannis in Cleveland in what an almighty momentum for the fences would be sent to Cleveland?

In conjunction with the Giannis discussion, there are a whole range of young teams in the Western Conference, namely The Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets, all of which have the assets in both players and in the design of the capital that could appease the goats in a theoretical trade.

Even if the thunder won the title next month, give the opportunity to add Giannis to your young core?

The Warriors with Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler and Curry in the late 30s are very much in their “Last Dance” räas.

Curry's thigh injury would have had his best chance for a fifth NBA title, but that won't prevent the Golden State from being particularly aggressive this summer.