nba playoffs aka the 'offs (which includes the 'ins) 2021

i'm nervous/scared for them (not joking)

i know *exactly* what you mean. can't even really think about it, let alone see it

alright time to watch the giannis injury i guess

looked bad

asterisks are a fake idea, you play it out according to the rules and what happens happens

sometimes the bad looking injuries are the ones that end up ok and the innocuous ones where a ligament imperceptibly tears like kawhi’s are the actual bad ones

yeah the one thing keeping me hopeful is the feeling that I've seen these sort of gnarly knee injuries in football before and they're usually not as bad as they seem. also Giannis is kind of a freak of nature who is rarely hurt so maybe his body is just resilient. still I'm bracing for the worst right now

its not too different to what embiid did a few weeks back if i recall. not gonna watch either again to verify.

freak of nature

I mean it's right there in his name, time to cash in on the freakiness

It looked like a classic hyperextension, sometimes that can get your ACL but usually not

!!!!!!

There is no structural damage to Giannis Antetokounmpo's left knee after his awkward landing last night in Atlanta; ligaments are sound, sources tell @wojespn and I. Timetable to return is unclear.

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) June 30, 2021

nice

Yeah hyperextension. No idea why people saw that and thought ACL

I think because his knee bent the wrong way

Yeah that’s what a hyperextension is

lol

wow thats awesome

anyone know if this is like a 2019 Durant situation where he mightve dodged a bullet but has increased vulnerability for a bad tear if he now goes and plays on the knee?

was thinking about that too. even if they make the Finals (which seems incredibly doubtful now) I would be very very nervous if he tried to come back

i respect your need to hedge any optimism frogbs but if giannis actually does come back i don't think it's incredibly doubtful! hard to gauge at this point what is really going on in that man's leg though

there's a party going on in that leg

well they’re saying the ligaments are ok which is different from what they said about kawhi where they acknowledged there was at least a partial tear

he's not coming back

he should come back

alas the doctors of twitter agree with cad

if the MRIs were clean idk why he couldn’t come back at some point for the finals

alas the doctors of twitter agree with cad

nah i'm referring to the takes now, responding to the mri results. but i am neither a doctor nor knowledgeable in the credulity of the doctors of twitter so idk

i do see that there seems to be a cottage industry of physical therapists orthopedists etc who give twitter hot takes on sports injuries

a hyperextension is not an injury.

there seems to be a consensus that at minimum there would be damage to the knee capsule and a bone bruise. not sure how long that would typically take to come back from but i would be very conservative with it.

Yeah he’s done for the series for sure but given the way NBA stars force themselves back these days I can see him trying like, Game 4 of the finals if the Bucks win one. Would be a bad idea though

That said I dunno if they can get there, it’s not like with Trae where you lose some sharpshooting and quickness but also have 5 real defenders, which obviously gave the Bucks fits last night. He’s their best player on both ends. On the other hand the Bucks have shot poorly in nearly every single game this postseason, they’re due for some serious regression and they have to have at least one game where Khris and Jrue actually get hot at the same time

i remain optimistic he can come back sooner than we think. he's a big, strong, young dude with no structural / ligament damage in the knee. if he can deal with (or cover up) the soreness...

i don’t know why we would assume he’s out for the series. he’s probably dealing with soreness but if there’s no damage to the knee i don’t know why he would sit out when they have an extremely good chance to win the title

the bone bruise and capsule injury would qualify as "damage" i think

i agree that if he can play it seems like a good time to play but just cause theres no structural damage doesnt mean that he can play

They 'll be doing every known therapy on that knee to speed its healing.

Winning tomorrow at least is kind of a big piece of the puzzle

i mean, if they lose does giannis just sit back and go "welp i guess i'll just kiss this one goodbye and see everyone next year." maybe he does, but based on the public info out there as of now i don't think that's set in stone

it would be really dumb to let him play on an injured knee so i hope someone has some sense.

I mean obviously a lot is unknown but it would be unreal if he didn’t need at least one week

especially for someone who relies so much on explosion and getting to the basket. like he doesn't really help them if he can't be totally confident in that knee so he can play his game.

suns looking locked in

it would be really dumb to let him play on an injured knee so i hope someone has some sense.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, June 30, 2021 9:20 PM (six minutes ago)

i guess i'm not sure i agree w/ this if the ligaments are fine and he just has a bone bruise it's prob about pain management more than anything. but if he's giving you harden level play out there i guess it's a question of whether it's worth it from a competitive standpoint.

like in the case of embiid they were multiple rounds from the title and he had a ligament tear. giannis situation feels different to me

Giannis isn't really the sort of player Harden is though. he was like never within 10 feet of the basket

ayton making some tough shots tonight

i mean there's a lot of factors and i shouldn't totally discount the idea that he could play, i just find it hard to believe that the whole area would be stable and pain-free enough that he could play his style of game without a major re-injury risk. banners fly forever but i don't think they're just going to waltz to the title if he plays and there's a shortsightedness to playing him that bothers me. if giannis were to suffer a really serious knee injury there would be significant concern that he is a different and much lesser player on the other side of it.

its not like they were cruising to a title either, the way they were playing reminded me of the 2019 ECF Raps series where they dominated for like 3-4 quarters then let the Raptors take control of everything else

Cam Payne has such an insane arc in his shots

it's a very weird shot and i am surprised when it goes in