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

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

yeah they look like they're gonna be 2 feet short and then splash

jesus that cousins bank 3

reggie jackson's shots are so smooth

I think he plays game 1 of the finals if they make it

Suns are running some really slick plays to get Saric an open 3

dario saric can't miss (if he's wiiide open)

i'm dying @ pat bev taking a 2 step flying jump swing on ayton's head like he's a WWE wrestler and the ref staring at it from 1 foot away just nonchalantly blowing his whistle and calling a common foul

i hate to say it....but i agree with that being a common foul

pat bev out here concussing players w/ no consequence this will rear its head later

believe me i hate defending anything pat bev does but he went for the ball and got the ball first

so did Jokic

well maybe not first

PatBev isn’t Serbian

well maybe not first

― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, June 30, 2021 10:27 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

feels like a very friendly whistle for the clips tonight….

if you can draw an equivalence between jokic committing an obvious frustration foul and raking a guy across the face vs. pat bev trying to block a shot from behind on a guy who is a foot taller than him i'm not going to argue with you because we're watching different things.