N.B.A. Playoff Teams Feel the Pain of Bubble Injuries

“None of these guys have ever, since they were kids, gone that long without playing,” Orlando Coach Steve Clifford said of the March-to-July break because of the pandemic. “You knew it was going to happen — pulls and strains and this and that. We did a Zoom meeting as soon as we got here, when everybody was still in quarantine, and that was a big part of it, telling our players that you’ve got to be talking to the performance staff if you’re feeling sore.”

Injuries like Lillard’s and Hayward’s are indeed sometimes random, bad-luck events that just as easily could have taken place had the playoffs gone on as scheduled this season without the intervention of the coronavirus.

Yet there is also a cumulative fatigue factor that all elite athletes face. Playing games every other day, after such a long layoff, can make that matter more.

“Especially now in the playoffs,” Clifford said, “when the intensity is so amped up.”

Dr. Harlan Selesnick, the Heat’s team physician since the inception of the franchise in 1988-89, said in a recent interview on WRLN radio in Miami that “no one knows how much” this season’s dramatic stop/start has increased injury risk. “But it’s certainly a concern,” Dr. Selesnick said.

Jeff Stotts of the Sports Medicine Analytics Research Team, which consults sports franchises on injury analysis and performance, said “the spike in injuries hasn’t been as pronounced” as he initially feared, but he added that the bubble variables were “always going to present issues” for teams.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/sports/basketball/nba-playoffs-injuries.html