Too Much Game Time? Injuries in Focus as NBA Playoffs Conclude
Too Much Game Time? Injuries in Focus as NBA Playoffs Conclude
May 22, 2025
It’s
incredible how one fleeting moment can change an entire narrative in
sports. Just over a week ago, Jayson Tatum was riding high as the face
of the Boston Celtics, the franchise star of the reigning
champions. Yet, in the closing minutes of the Celtics’ crucial
Eastern Conference Semi-Final game against the Knicks, Tatum suffered a
season-ending injury. Today, there’s a slew of “What next for Tatum?”
articles online questioning the player’s future. For the Celtics, who
exited the Playoffs, the narrative has changed from being a team of
champions with everything going right to a team with lots of concerns
going into next season.
Of course, not all of it was down to a single
injury, and it’s not even clear that the Celtics could have overcome
the Knicks with their star man fully fit, yet the high-profile nature
of the incident has once again put injuries in the spotlight. For a
couple of seasons now, there has been a growing sense that players,
especially key players, are getting injured more, and it’s not quite
clear why. Some metrics put injuries up 16% on the 2023-24 season,
which also saw a notable rise from the season previously.
Injuries impact fan experience
It does, of course, impact the experience for fans. If you are betting on the Playoffs or playing a DFS fantasy pick’em game,
the last thing you want is to see a star player end their season early.
Rosters of great teams will be strong enough to cope with the loss of
one or two players, sure, but the fact that so many key players
sustained significant injuries throws the perception of the sport into
question.
As mentioned, there are several theories being
thrown around as to why we have seen a surge in injuries. The most
prevalent is that there is an increased game load. The 82-game regular
season has been consistent for many years now, and it’s certainly not
the case that average MPG (minutes per game) has increased across the
league as a whole, although that varies from team to team.
You can add the NBA Cup Final to the workload, as
well as the additional requirements of the Play-In Tournament.
Nonetheless, most teams will play the same number of games throughout
the season as they did five or ten years ago.
Bigger players can have more wear and tear on joints
Other interesting theories include the increased
“violence” of the game. By violence, we don’t mean that players are
physically attacking each other; rather, the game has evolved to become
more explosive. Players are noticeably bigger and stronger, too,
something that can put more wear and tear on joints and muscles. If you
are carrying an extra 20lbs, that can really impact areas like the knee
and ACL.
The truth is, however, that nobody is really sure.
Moreover, we can point to studies from the 2000s and 2010s that suggest
this has been going on for a long time. Certainly, we can look back at
fan forums across the internet age that have constantly been saying
that injuries in the NBA
are more common than “before.”. There is some truth in it, but it has
been an ongoing problem for many years, and it is still being framed as
a contemporary one.
As the NBA Playoffs conclude, there are many calls
to change the league’s approach to the games. Tatum is not the only
star player to suffer issues, as the likes of Steph Curry and Damian
Lillard also had notable injuries. After his team’s Playoff defeat to
the Thunder, Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon, who himself had niggling injuries
across the campaign, called for the league to go a little easier on
teams throughout the Playoffs. “Just give these professional athletes
one more day of rest, you'll see a higher level of basketball. Probably
less blowouts," he said, adding that it is the healthiest teams – perhaps not the best – that eventually win championships.
