By Carson Hull
In a season that came just 72 days after the NBA Bubble ended with LeBron and Anthony Davis defeating the Miami Heat in 6 games, the storyline all season has been injuries. The stars that run and carry our league all faced at least some injury issue with most missing a decent chunk of time. That problem became even worse when it lingered into the playoffs. AD groin injury in Game 4 of the first round. LeBron’s high ankle sprain. Harden’s hamstring in the first few seconds of the second round. Kyrie’s twisted ankle. Trae Young’s twisted ankle. Giannis and Joel having knee issues (and still out there balling). Donovan Mitchell missing the opening game of the playoffs and then getting injured again at the end of the Clippers series. Kawhi’s torn ACL game 4 of the second round. And those are just the stars. Injuries are always transforming playoff series. It just so happens that the injuries occurring during these playoffs are coming at the expense of some of the biggest stars featured. It usually occurs to the solid role guy that can potentially swing a game or two in a series. Not the stars that help control and win a whole series. With that being said, I whole-heartedly agree with the thesis that neither team that competed in the NBA Finals would have won this NBA championship with a healthy LeBron, AD, Kawhi, Kyrie or Harden. Let’s look at the Suns’ path. The Lakers with a somewhat healthy AD and LeBron won games 2 and 3 pretty convincingly, having a ton of fun while doing it, and their momentum was heading in the right direction before AD injured his groin in game 4. But you can’t discredit CP3 practically popping his shoulder out and it clearly affecting his shot and handles for those games as well. Then came the Nuggets, who I think the Suns could have and should have beaten the Nuggets even with Murray due to their better defense and overall better consistency compared to the streakiness and hot/cold dynamic of MPJ, Gordon, and Murray. Then you have the Clippers, who I definitely agree would have beaten the Suns with a healthy Kawhi. The Clippers looked lost on offense in the final minutes of each game, and maybe one of the best clutch shot creators in the league could have helped them in those situations. Plus, the defense and switching Kawhi for PG13 at the free throw line in Game 2 also. He could have helped there but one could argue that the presence of Kawhi would not have allowed the likes of Terrence Mann, Reggie Jackson, and Marcus Morris to untap their out of body experiences that happened to them during the playoffs. They wouldn’t have gotten the same number of shots and with that, might not have found the rhythm to become what they became. Who knows. Then the Bucks path, which would have ended if Kevin Durant was wearing a shoe that was just a tad smaller on him. The fact that the Nets even got to that point is a miracle within itself. The first two games proved that with a healthy second star in either Kyrie or Harden, the Nets were too much offensively even with the Bucks stellar defense. The other end of that is by losing this series, we might not have gotten the quick ascension of Giannis taking his game to a whole other level that we could have only dreamed about as NBA fans.
Every year we get tiers of teams. You have your first tier: Teams That Can Win the NBA Championship regardless of who stands in their way. This year I believe that group was the Lakers, Clippers, and Nets. Then you have your next tier of contenders: Teams That Can Win the NBA Championship with the luck of an injury, call, or both luckily swinging their way. These teams are really good and you wouldn\"t be surprised if they won, but you know it would take certain circumstances to get there. This year I believe that group was the Bucks, Nuggets with an untorn Jamal Murray ACL, and the Suns. So, aren’t the Suns and Bucks exactly who we thought they were? Two well-coached (tough to say at times for Coach Budenholzer), deep teams that took care of business that you could see winning a championship if circumstances such as injuries, bracket layout, and a couple calls here and there went in their favor because they weren’t as top heavy as other teams? Sure, the Suns got a couple of pretty MASSIVE turns of events in their favor, but nonetheless they did what they needed to do. They played who was in front of them, and you can’t knock them for that. Same with the Bucks. They proved with these Finals that they could go toe to toe with a healthy Nets team, but they weren’t ready during the Nets series. It took that win over the Nets to gain that confidence to become Champions. They didn’t have that during the Nets series, and I believe the Nets would have won in 5 or 6 with their amazing offense, ineptitude on offense from the Bucks and terrible coaching by Bud. With all this being said, I want everyone to acknowledge the high profile injuries when discussing this championship in the future, but don’t let it overthrow the incredible basketball that we just witnessed during this NBA Finals.
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