To win a championship a lot of things need to be working for you. As
good as your team was in the regular season, none of that matters now that you
are in the playoffs. For your favorite team to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy
at season’s end, you basically need the planets need to align in your favor. Cold
shooting, late game turnovers and foul trouble are all more paramount once
teams seasons are on the line. The biggest thing that can swing a series in the
opposing team’s favor can happen in the
blink of an eye. Injuries can be
quite damning to a team’s chances and might just be the Universe’s way of
telling teams “Not this year fellas.” On two separate occasions Saturday we saw
players go down with serious injuries that, not only hurt their own teams odds
but, changed the scope of how the entire playoffs would play out.
In the 4th quarter of the opening game between the Chicago Bulls and the Philadelphia 76ers,
reigning MVP Derrick Rose drove to the basket and came down awkwardly on
his left knee. The next few minutes the Bulls superstar was writhing on the
floor in pain as a packed United Center in Chicago looked on in silence. Rose
had torn his ACL, and just like that his
season was over. A very serious injury, Rose will need a lot of rehabbing in
the off-season to come back from this. The question now is, can the Bulls come
back from this? Can they, the number
seed in the East, one of the front runners in the race for the championship
overcome the loss of their best player? Reports from Chicago would have you
believing they think they can, but everyone knows they aren’t the same team without
him.
In a similar case in Miami, rookie guard for the Knicks Iman Shumpert
went down, also injuring his left knee. In what looked like any other play, Shumpert
was bringing the ball up the court for the Knicks when he planted his left knee
awkwardly and immediately crumpled to the ground clearly in pain. In replays
you can see the slightest twinge of his knee as the rookie attempts a behind the
back dribble. Along with tearing his ACL, Shumpert also tore the lateral meniscus
in his left knee. His injury is actually a bit worse than Rose’s and it is
predicted that Shumpert will be out at least 6-8 months while he attempts to
rehab from this. The loss is a big one for the Knicks who were counting on
Shumpert’s stellar defense to slow down Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade. On top of
the huge physical blow this did to the Knicks the effect it has mentally may be
the real killer in this series. Already down big in the game to the Heat when Shumpert went
down, the Knicks appeared absolutely deflated as they watched trainers have to
carry their young teammate to the locker room. Any chance for an upset in the
series may have disappeared into that locker room with him.
Injuries are a huge part of sports and they can have far-reaching effects on your team’s chances of winning it all. Sometimes the teams celebrating at the end of the season don’t have the best rosters, instead, they have the healthiest.
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