Playoffs that were affected by major injuries

[colts18]

Let's use this thread to collect the major injuries that affected playoff outcomes throughout NBA history.

Some examples:

1989: Magic
2003: Webber/Dirk
2012: Rose
2015: Kyrie/Love
2019: Durant/Thompson

[ronnymac2]

Wade/Shaq in 2005
Horace Grant in 1996
Chris Paul for half his prime

[eminence]

Most of them I suppose, I'm not sure how many playoffs we could find without an injury to a Kyrie/Love/Thompson level guy.

[JordansBulls]

Let's use this thread to collect the major injuries that affected playoff outcomes throughout NBA history.

Some examples:

1989: Magic
2003: Webber/Dirk
2012: Rose
2015: Kyrie/Love
2019: Durant/Thompson

These are all good. Especially 2012.

2013 as well as 2014 in the East as well.

[jalengreen]

off the top of my head, 2021 had

cp3 and AD miss time in the first round

murray miss the playoffs

jaylen brown miss the playoffs

kyrie get hurt early vs the bucks and miss the rest of the series. harden get hurt early vs the bucks and miss time before rushing back and being useless due to injury

and conley got hurt r1 and missed the clippers series

kawhi getting hurt at the end of the jazz series and missing the entire WCF

giannis and trae both got hurt in the ECF and missed multiple games

[wojoaderge]

1978: Walton

[picko]

In 2021 it seemed like almost every series was impacted by injuries. Stars dropping all over the place.

[falcolombardi]

almost every season is gonna have relevant injuries

is just that we dont remember older seasons as well as we do recent ones

[Rich Michmond]

Havlicek's injury in the middle of the 1973 ECF.

[sp6r=underrated]

Most of them I suppose, I'm not sure how many playoffs we could find without an injury to a Kyrie/Love/Thompson level guy.

My thought exactly. If we're hitting this range of players it is going to be basically all. Off the top of my head

1996: Horace Grant
2000: Duncan
2002: David Robinson/Peja
2004: Karl Malone
2005: Artest* suspension counts/Wade
2006: Amar'e
2008: Manu
2009: Garnett
2014: Serge Ibaka
2015: Durant
2017: Kawhi
2018: Chris Paul
2020: Durant

[sp6r=underrated]

almost every season is gonna have relevant injuries

is just that we dont remember older seasons as well as we do recent ones

And the more an era fades into the past the more the non-title winning teams are forgotten. The Teens Thunder are already fading from memory and teams like the 80s Bucks are all but forgotten except for the most serious of fans.

[coastalmarker99]

1965 Baylor

1968 billy cunningham.

1971 Jerry west.

1973 Jerry west.

[coastalmarker99]

It was deemed remarkable that they even got to the Division Finals vs. Boston with all the injuries.

Luke Jackson was playing with a badly pulled hamstring.

When Lakers star Magic pulled his hamstring in '89 Finals, he could not even play the final game at all & much of the third game.

While the 1989 Lakers get excused due to injury, the '68 Sixers do not. B


Back in the old days they were expected to gut it out under worse playing conditions, as Jackson did when he played the entire 1966 season on a broken leg, casually shrugging it off as shin splints.

There were times during the NY series when the hobbled Sixers were getting killed on the boards, as Bellamy & Reed were feasting on the offensive glass. They played Games 4, 5, and 6 consecutively. No days off in between.

Watch on YouTube

;t=16m20s



New York Times - Apr 18, 1968

But injuries have depleted the team that ended the Celtics' eight-year reign last season.
Wally Jones, the jump-shooting Philadelphia guard with the game-breaking touch, is doubtful for Friday.

He aggravated his right knee, first injured during the series with the New York Knickerbockers, early in the opening quarter and did not return.

Wilt Chamberlain, the 7-foot pillar of the 76ers, produced 20 points but was in obvious pain with an ailing right leg.




Williamson Daily News - Apr 10, 1968






DELAWARE COUNTY - April 13, 1968

Club Rated 'Most Courageous' By Hannum as Injuries Mount

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Philadelphia 76ers could be billed as the best touring troupe In basketball. All they need is a doctor to complete the cast.

Going into the fourth game Sunday of their National Basketball Association playoff series with the Boston Celtics, the 76ers are hurting from head to toe.

So what's new? Injuries have plagued the defending NBA champions since the opening of the season.

"Alex Hannum says this is the most courageous team he's ever coached," says Harvey Pollack, the 76ers' statistician. "The locker room looks like a hospital ward every time I walk in."

Pollack ticked off some of the cases, which read like a medical diary:

-Wilt Chamberlain (partial tear of the calf muscle in his right leg, a strain in his right thigh and an injured right toe):

-Wally Jones (injured knee cartilage):

-Luke Jackson (pulled hamstring muscle):

-Hal Greer (bursitus in his right knee):

-And, Billy Cunningham (broken right wrist).

"That's not mentioning (rookie) Jim Reid who had a knee operation after injuring it the first game of the season," said Pollack, "and Larry Costello," the veteran guard who tore an ankle tendon after one-third of the season was gone.

The most recent injury was to Chamberlain in Friday night's Eastern Division playoff contest with the Celtics.

The dipper was given whirlpool treatments for the calf muscle tear, but Pollack wasn't sure how he'd respond.

The 76ers have nine men in uniform for the best-of-seven playoffs, in which they lead, two games to one.

But whether they'll have anybody left for the finals against the Western Division winner is anybody's guess.

The team's troubles multiplied in the Eastern Division semifinals against the New York Knickerbockers.

Cunningham broke his wrist, knocking him out for the season, Jones and Jackson suffered their injuries and Chamberlain aggravated his perennial toe injury.

And when Boston thumped the 76ers in the opening game of their playoffs here last Friday, some predicted a quick knockout of the injury-riddled champs.

But Philadelphia whacked Boston two straight, including Thursday where an injury actually helped the 76ers cause, points out Pollack.

How so?

"Well, Chamberlain was hurt and he couldn't turn around to score-so he kept feeding Greer, and he scored 31," explained the statistician.

[Owly]

So
1) This depends on framing but with that caveat …
2) This is basically every year.
Not all are injuries occurring in the playoffs. Trying not to repeat already mentioned.
’89 Scott (finals)
’09 KG
’04 Cassell
’92 Robinson
’97 Robinson, '75 Kareem any other MVP caliber players who went to pieces without them and didn't qualify
’51 Mikan
’54 Schayes broken wrist (not main shooting arm though by that point reportedly ambidextrous – prior to finals)
’58 Russell
’90 KJ (G6 WCF hamstring pull off Duckworth foul – missed most of a game earlier in playoffs, also lost, due to “viral enteritis”/flulike symptoms.
’95 Manning
’89 Bucks (multiple)
'87 Dantley-Johnson collision?
’83 Worthy
’74 Allen
’67 West
2000 Hill
’96 McMillan
’71 … beyond Lakers mentioned, Unseld had been hurt, Gus Johnson and Earl Monroe hobbled whilst NY
’69 – Barry. Oaks did win. Would anticipate on average him being there makes them better but if one takes the outcome as given (and we probably shouldn’t) this is an injury that would change things.
With suspension things mentioned … I like aspects of Venon Maxwell’s play but his walkout on the ’95 Rockets removed a high variance player (and his fan punching 10 game suspension opened the path for the Drexler trade and for this walkout)
’97 Smits? Pacers outside the playoffs. Smits misses 30 games, McKey misses over 30 and substantial drop in composite stats.
’98, ’99 Ewing
’16 Curry? – don’t pretend to know enough about this, some people insist that having played well earlier he must be fully recovered.
’98 Stockton?? – There’s a serious injury on the champs too (Pippen), but Stockton had missed 4 games to that point in his career, had been hovering at a smidge above 35mpg in prior 3 years up to 37.5 in playoffs. This year 29, up to 29.8 in the playoffs.
’89 Price? Cavs arguably dropped off and dropped 1 seed post Mahorn’s mid-court concussion causing elbow. Misses G1 with hamstring issue. Wilkens notes Price not 100% in playoffs and nor was Nance (ankle) …
Cavs ’89-’94 multiple. Nance missed time early in 89-90 due to ankle surgery from an ankle that caused him to miss some games in ’89. Daugherty had offseason surgery (time of original injury/aggravation unclear) missed half the RS. Cavs sneak into playoffs as 7 seed.
’91 Price (and Williams) injured. Cavs miss playoffs.
Coach Wilkens injuries achilles playing pickup versus security guards in Barcelona delays surgery … shortly after surgery Wilkens develops blood clots on lungs ….
Cavs had been 7.95 SRS in ’89 (with Ron Harper) and were over 5 in ’92 and ’93. ’94 Nance and Daugherty get injured, play last NBA games.
Some of these are somewhat random, I know.
Do we want to say Larry injuring his hand in a bar fight (’85) counts? Or his back deteriorating in ’88? McHale’s foot …

Obviously there are butterfly effects off some (all?) of these (Robinson ’97 most obviously) which could push us towards tragedies Stokes, Lewis, Bias etc. At a lower level the Tarpley 2nd strike suspension and subsequent suspensions and choices altered the trajectory of the Mavs. If people are saying suspensions Suns bench leavers. Late 90s Heat-Knicks fights.
This is mostly otoh, with occasional checking in on details …

[jalengreen]

almost every season is gonna have relevant injuries

is just that we dont remember older seasons as well as we do recent ones

while true im not sure ive heard of a postseason as affected by injuries as 2021

[Johnlac1]

Andrew Toney injuries shortened his career and might have cost the Sixers a few titles. Ralph Sampson's bad knees really hurt the Rockets.
Bird's bad back and the death of Len Bias probably cost the Celtics a good shot at a few more titles in the second half of the 80s.
A healthy Walton and the pickup of another real good player would have meant a few more titles for Portland.