In a 10-game slate of NBA games on Wednesday night, stars like LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Trae Young, Gordon Hayward, LaMelo Ball, and De’Aaron Fox were all inactive, and each of their teams lost. Some of these games were blowouts, so it is hard to say that their teams would’ve won with them on the court, but these are all difference-making players and their absences were truly felt. With playoff implications on the line, surely the games wouldn’t have gone the same way if they were able to lace them up.
STAR PLAYER INJURIES ARE PILING UP AND SIGNIFICANTLY ALTERING PLAYOFF SEEDING
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All of these injuries piling up recently clearly affected the games tonight, and are altering the playoff seeding as well. Pretty much all of these teams who played without stars Wednesday night are in playoff or play-in position. Obviously, these teams were missing their key players for only one night in some examples, but it can hurt them in the coming weeks too. It can very well lead to the teams falling down the standings, allowing for healthier teams to catch them and give them a shot at playoff contention or higher seed.
Players like LeBron James who are more seriously injured have it worse than ones who are more just hurt and have been in and out of lineups without missing too many games in a row. James will likely head almost right into playoff basketball, which is far more exhausting than the regular season and to go into that after a long absence is a tough thing to do. The severity and duration of these injuries to star players are going to be very impactful on the final seeds and are going to play a major factor in this year’s postseason matchups.
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