OKC Thunder: How each teams injuries could affect seeding and playoff results

Eastern seeded teams injury report:

Celtics hit hardest:

Clearly the Boston Celtics are inarguably the east squad with the greatest injury concerns. Initial reports indicate Kyrie Irving will miss at least three weeks of action (up to six weeks). So far, the Celtics haven’t suffered from his absence, or the other players like Marcus Smart or Jaylen Brown being out. However, could an extended absence equal greater fatigue for the youngsters picking up the slack in Irving’s absence.

Cavaliers get healthy at perfect time:

Cleveland went through a rash of injuries, but have almost everyone back as of their last game. And, while the pundits and analysts debate LeBron James incredible season being MVP worthy or if he is the GOAT vs. MJ (he’s not for the record) perhaps the greatest feat of LeBron James career is his body management and the fact he’s never suffered a major injury or missed a stretch of games due to injury.

https://twitter.com/bballeconomist/status/967461562628919296

Wizards could benefit from Wall’s absence:

Washington who could end up being a major thorn in one of the top team’s sides will get John Wall back shortly. In the Wizards case Wall being out may have served to benefit Washington since players like Tomas Satoransky and Kelly Oubre Jr got additional court time. For a squad who didn’t have much reserve depth this experience and time to gel could pay major dividends come the postseason.

Bucks backcourt decimated:

Milwaukee being without two playmaking, three point shooting guards may be why they’ve fallen to the bottom of the East’s playoff seeds. If they get both guards back for the playoffs it could serve to make a much more competitive one versus eight matchup.

Heat suffer constant short term injuries:

Miami is another squad whose suffered multiple players being in and out of the lineup with Erik Spoelstra needing to navigate copious different lineup iterations. At times it’s felt like the Heat were using tape and glue to put their squad on the floor.

A rookie less Sixers squad suffers no ill effect:

Depending on how you view 76ers rookie Markelle Fultz they fell in the huge loss category or maneuvered the season without key injuries. Just the fact the Sixers kept Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid on the court without any major injury or games lost has to be considered a win.

Roster management and luck for two teams:

The two teams who managed to get through (at least to this point – knock on wood) the season without losing a core contributor for copious games are the East’s top seed the Toronto Raptors and the feel good team of the year the Indiana Pacers.

In both cases the squads may have benefitted by utilizing a good portion of their reserves right from season start. For the Raptors everyone knows how that worked out as their bench is the cream of the reserve crop. And, even when players needed to miss a handful of games Dwane Casey had no problem utilizing his G-League players (Malcolm Miller, Lorenzo Brown) to fill in even as starters.

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Critics jump on Raptors forgetting schedule can be equally problematic:

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I included the tweet below for the Raptors since they basically haven’t had any major injuries. That said, when major media ignore the fact a team is playing for the tenth time in 16 days in their third back to back in the same time frame it points to how much respect LeBron James has.

It’s a whole other article to dive into, so I’ll simply say the Raptors losing this game in Cleveland under these circumstances by three points isn’t going to cause them concern. They are the only top five offense/defense team in NBA with the best home record. Their stars have played the fewest minutes per game over the past five seasons and although the 60 win season is a goal they will sacrifice that to get their stars more rest.

Besides if the Cavs had been ousted in the game the narrative would have been Cavs were without players. Conversely if Raptors had squeaked out the win the storylines would’ve been once Cavs are fully healthy they crush Raptors.  So this result sends the message even exhausted this team just scored 130 points in Cleveland, so in a series (rested/healthy) they have no reason not to enter confident.

As of this morning here’s the 18 teams injury report: