There’s nothing worse than an injury influencing the outcome of a sporting event. An athlete can see all their hard work go down the drain with just one injury. As a viewer, you feel like you were robbed the opportunity to see the event at its highest level and instead you’re watching a watered down version of it. It’s like watching an R rated movie on TNT.
This decade in the NBA we’ve seen multiple injuries that have affected the outcome of who won the NBA championship in certain years. A decent amount of these injuries have taken place during the playoffs. I thought it’d be interesting to rank the 10 biggest playoff injuries this decade in terms of how big of an impact those injuries had on the title picture in the year the injury happened. For the purposes of these rankings, the injuries had to have taken place in the playoffs and the player must’ve missed the remainder of the playoffs after suffering the injury. No one who suffered an injury yet still played the rest of the postseason banged up qualifies for this list. To further clarify, this isn’t a ranking of who are the best players to get injured in the postseason. It’s a ranking of which injuries to players had the biggest effect on altering which team won the title the season the injury occurred in. Without further ado, let’s get to it.
- Chris Paul & Blake Griffin – 2016 Clippers
I hate the fact that I’m starting off this list by lumping two players together. It feels like cheating, but considering Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were teammates who both suffered injuries that kept them out for the remainder of the postseason in the exact same game, an exception can be made. The Clippers were in a weird spot headed into this postseason. They were coming off back to back disappointing conference semi-final losses against Oklahoma City in 2014 (choked game 5) and Houston in 2015 (blew a 3-1 lead and saying they choked game 6 would be like saying Michael Phelps is only a good swimmer) in the first two years of Doc Rivers’ tenure with their two best teams in the “Lob City” era. In 2016 the 4-seed Clips were up 2-1 in a first-round playoff series against the 5-seed Portland Trail Blazers. Then CP3 fractured his hand, and Blake injured his quad. The Clippers didn’t win another game in the series and were bounced in six.
Had it not been for those injuries the Clips definitely would’ve been favored to win the series and probably would have. The reason why these injuries rank last on this list is because even if the Clippers had beaten Portland with a healthy Paul and Griffin they almost definitely would’ve lost to the 73 win Golden State Warriors in the following round. Even though Curry was banged up and just coming back from an injury he suffered in round one, he still went off for 40 points in his first game back in round-two against Portland who the Warriors ultimately beat in five that year. The Warriors would’ve likely demolished the Clippers just like they had done in the regular season (4-0 against LA) and like they did to Portland. Therefore, the injuries to Paul and Griffin likely didn’t influence the title picture at all.
- Kevin Love – 2015 Cavaliers
When LeBron decided to return to Cleveland in the summer of 2014, the Cavaliers traded for Kevin Love who was supposed to be the second best player on the team. Love wasn’t able to live up to that billing, but fortunately for Cleveland, Kyrie Irving was able to blossom into a true number two for them as Love became a third wheel. In his last year in Minnesota before being traded to Cleveland, Love averaged 26 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists a game in an All-Star year. In his first season with the Cavs, Love only averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds. He scored ten freaking less points than he did only a year before!!!!!! You can’t even blame that on a first year adjustment because in his second year in Cleveland he once again only averaged 16 freaking points!!!!!!! He didn’t even make the All-Star team in his first two seasons with the Cavaliers. Love has played five seasons in Cleveland now where in each one he’s averaged less than 20 points a game. Obviously, there’s individual sacrifices that star players make when they team up with an all time great like LeBron, but Love’s drop off was incredible. Could anyone actually seeing Anthony Davis’s numbers (26 and 12 last year) dropping like that as he enters his first year with LeBron? No shot. Don’t take that as a Love vs Davis comparison. Look at it as further evidence of just how substantial Love’s dip in scoring was when he teamed up with LeBron.
Even though Love underachieved, he was still a really good player on Cleveland’s roster for the entirety of LeBron’s second stint in his home city. Losing Love in the first round of the playoffs to a shoulder injury definitely hurt Cleveland’s chances of winning the title in 2015. However, it didn’t hurt those chances too bad since they likely would’ve been champions had there not been another injury that happened in the 2015 postseason which we will get to later.
- Kawhi Leonard – 2017 Spurs
In the 2017 NBA playoffs San Antonio faced off against Golden State in the Western Conference Finals. This was an interesting moment in time for both franchises. The Warriors were in their first postseason with Kevin Durant while the Spurs were in their first postseason since Tim Duncan retired a year earlier. Luckily for the Spurs, they had Kawhi Leonard to be the franchise star to lead them in the post Duncan era (or so they thought). In game one of the 2017 West Finals, San Antonio led by 25 at one point with things looking good in their direction. Everything changed in the third quarter of the game when Zaza Pachulia closed out on a jump shot taken by Kawhi in which he landed on Zaza’s foot and aggravated an ankle injury that prevented Kawhi from playing in the remaining playoff games for his team. After the injury in game one, the Warriors came back from their huge deficit and went on to sweep the Spurs to advance to their third straight finals.
Although the Spurs were impressively beating the Warriors until Kawhi’s injury, there was no way a healthy Kawhi was going to change the title picture that season. The Warriors were simply unbeatable in 2017. They only lost one game the entire playoffs. Maybe the Spurs could’ve taken a game or two from the Warriors, but they wouldn’t have done anything besides prolong the inevitability of Golden State winning the 2017 title.
- Derrick Rose – 2012 Bulls
Everyone remembers that Derrick Rose led the Chicago Bulls to the best record in the NBA and won MVP while doing so in 2011. I wonder if as many people remember that the Bulls were the 1 seed the very next year as well while Derrick Rose only played in 39 regular seasons game (lockout shortened season of 66 games) due to nagging injuries all year. Rose played in Chicago’s first playoff game in 2012 against the Philadelphia 76ers and scored 23 points to go along with 9 rebounds and 9 assists in a W. Things were going great in Chicago until Derrick Rose tore his ACL with a minute and twenty-two seconds left in a game that was essentially wrapped up for the Bulls. Rose missed the rest of the postseason, and the Bulls ended up losing the series to the Sixers. The worst part about this is Rose never returned to MVP form. In fact, he’s never even made an All-Star team again as he kept on battling injuries. He’ll probably be the only league MVP to not make the Hall of Fame (although the bar for that is pretty low these days). Even though it was a catastrophic injury for Rose’s career, the injury’s impact on who won the title was probably minimal. The Heat took down the Bulls in 5 the previous year and the chance they would have done it again was high on the count of Chicago didn’t make many roster upgrades. Chicago also would’ve had to have gone through a veteran Celtics team that they were fortunate to avoid (Miami and Boston played each other in round 2 in 2011) last postseason. It would’ve been tough for a team with one reliable offensive player in Rose to beat a team in Boston with multiple stars. Rose’s ACL injury in 2012 sucked for Chicago as they not only lost their chance at a title that year but also their first true franchise player since Michael Jordan.
- Russell Westbrook – 2013 Thunder
The 2012-2013 Oklahoma City Thunder are the winningest team in the franchise’s history since the move from Seattle. The team was a year removed from a five game series loss to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant were more battle tested headed into the 2013 postseason and had a real shot at winning the championship. That shot vanished when Westbrook tore his meniscus after he bumped into Patrick Beverly in game two of OKC’s round one series against the Houston Rockets. OKC was able to win that series without Russ who was out for the remainder of the postseason, but ended up losing in the second round to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Although the Thunder had their best regular season record ever and Westbrook and Durant had more experience under their belts, the Thunder’s title shot that year still didn’t seem like it was a good one. For starters they traded James Harden (you may have heard of him) to the Houston Rockets in a money saving move. To this day the Thunder are continually criticized (and rightfully so) for letting go of Harden who only went on to win an MVP, multiple scoring titles, and make multiple All-NBA first teams as a member of the Rockets. However, whether you’re in the minority that believes the Harden trade made sense or if you think getting Kevin Martin in return for the at the time reigning six man of the year was a good pickup is beside the point. Trading away Harden in the offseason indisputably made them a less talented team than they were a year ago. They never made the Finals again after trading Harden. Also, the Miami Heat, who they lost to in the finals the previous year, had their best season in LeBron’s four year tenure in South Beach winning 66 regular season games featuring a 27 game win streak. We also shouldn’t forget the Spurs who were a miracle Ray Allen shot from winning the title in 2013 would’ve had an advantage had they played a healthy OKC team given the fact that Harden who caused San Antonio so many problems in the 2012 Western Conference Finals was gone. Westbrook’s injury in the 2013 playoffs clearly eliminated the Thunder as a title contender that year, but even had he played given how their top rival improved while they got worse from a talent perspective, their chances probably weren’t as good as their regular season record would indicate.
- Chris Paul – 2018 Rockets
The only bad part about Kevin Durant leaving Golden State this past summer is that we never got to see another team topple the ultimate super villain team. Yes, I know the Raptors beat the Warriors last year, but if it wasn’t for a couple of injuries (which we’ll get to later), Massai might not be getting as much praise as he is right now for the Kawhi trade. No team came closer to beating the Durant Warriors than the 2018 Houston Rockets. Unfortunately for them, in the closing moments of a game five victory that gave them a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference Finals, they lost Chris Paul for the remainder of the series to a hamstring injury. From there Houston lost the next two games including a game seven at home where they shot 0-27 from three. Despite that horrible shooting performance, Houston led the game at multiple moments. Some would argue that if it wasn’t for Paul getting hurt the Warriors would have lost to Houston, but those Warriors teams are just so mentally tough and incredibly talented it’s difficult to think they’d lose any series until you actually see the clock hit zero (even then it’s still hard to believe). Chris Paul being injured for the last two games of the Western Conference Finals clearly helped Golden State’s chances of winning the 2018 NBA championship. However, those chances still would have been high with a healthy CP3 on the court.
- Kendrick Perkins – 2010 Celtics
If you’re friends with a Boston Celtics fan they’ve probably mentioned to you more than a few times that the team has an undefeated (7-0) playoff series record with Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Kendrick Perkins in the starting five. Kendrick Perkins injured his knee in game six of the 2010 NBA Finals which likely prevented that starting five from having an 8-0 playoff series record. Without Kendrick Perkins in game seven of the Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston got destroyed on the glass so badly it made me wonder if any of the Celtics shrunk a couple of inches before the tip. The Lakers won the 2010 NBA championship due in large part to out rebounding the Celtics 53 to 40 in a game seven victory. Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant combined for 33 rebounds (18 for Gasol & 15 for Kobe) in game seven. I’m fairly certain having a 6’10 and 270 pound center known for his physicality would’ve tilted the rebound margin in a positive direction for the Celtics.
Look I understand every other player listed thus far has made an All-Star team which is something Perkins never did (or came close to), but the purpose of this list is to rank the injuries that had the biggest affect on who won the title in a specific year. The Celtics only had to win one more game to win the title, so any injury to them from the moment they lead 3-2 in the Finals would certainly have a larger impact than an injury that could’ve happened in round one. This sucked for me as a Celtics fan, but as a basketball fan, it still sucked because Kobe got more rings than Shaq. Shaq was the best player on the championship winning teams they were on together. Now his sidekick from those teams has won more titles than him and is universally viewed as a better player than [Insert one of Shaq’s 100 mediocre nicknames here]. Also, maybe if it wasn’t for that fifth ring we wouldn’t have to hear about “Mamba Mentality” nonstop. Just great.
- Klay Thompson – 2019 Warriors
Saying the Warriors would’ve won the title in 2019 had Kevin Durant not gotten hurt is as hot as a take as saying the Justice League would have a better chance at defeating super villains with Superman on their side than without him. However, if you said the Warriors would’ve came back from their 3-1 deficit and won the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors had Klay Thompson not torn his ACL in game six, that’s slightly better (though not much) of a hot take. The Warriors lost game six of the 2019 NBA Finals on their home court while trying to force a game seven against the Raptors. In game six of the 2019 Finals, Klay Thompson had a game high 30 points which he got before the third quarter finished. Unluckily, Klay tore his ACL on a drive to the basket in the third quarter which caused him to miss the remainder of the game and would’ve caused him to miss game seven had the Warriors been able to force one.
We need to take a moment to appreciate just how good Klay was in that game six. He was the game’s leading scorer and missed an entire quarter because of his injury. Klay is a game six legend. He scored 41 points in game six of the 2016 Western Conference Finals on the road against the Thunder and 35 points in game six of the 2018 Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets to avoid elimination in both instances. It’s a shame we’ll never know how much game six Klay would’ve scored to prevent the Raptors from eliminating his Warriors in the 2019 Finals, but based off of past game six performances and how well he was doing until his injury, it’s pretty safe to assume he would’ve added a sizable number to his points total and the Warriors would’ve made this series go back to Canada for a game seven. The reason why Klay is so high on this list is because in that situation I’d find it hard to pick against the group who had won three of the last four titles in a winner take all game for the 2019 NBA championship which would mean his injury had a dramatic impact on changing the 2019 NBA champion.
- Kyrie Irving – 2015 Cavaliers
Cleveland’s injury luck was absolutely terrible in 2015. I already mentioned Kevin Love’s shoulder injury that he suffered in the first-round which kept him out for the remainder of the playoffs. From an injury perspective, things only got worse for Cleveland after that. Kyrie Irving fractured a kneecap in overtime of game one of the 2015 Finals which kept him out for the remainder of the series. Without two of their three best players, conventional wisdom would say the Cavs were screwed and had no chance in the series.
However, LeBron was able to lead the team to being two games away from winning the championship in 2015. He just wasn’t able to get enough heroic performances from Timofey Mozgov and Matthew Dellavedova to get the job done. They came so close to winning the series without Kyrie that had he not gone down in game one, the Cavs in all likelihood would’ve won their first title a year earlier than they actually did. However, I’m sure Warriors fans would argue since they were able to win the one game in the series in which Kyrie partook in, him being healthy wouldn’t have made this a cakewalk for Cleveland. That’s not a bad point at all, but given how close the Cavs came without Kyrie and how mediocre the Warriors core played in the Finals (Igoudala got a freaking Finals MVP because of how subpar the Warriors stars were), I’m of the mindset that Cleveland would have won this series with Kyrie Irving on the court. The ripple effects from this injury can still be felt. If Kyrie didn’t get hurt and the Cavs won the 2015 NBA championship, would the Warriors have gone into the next season with the confidence to win 73 games? Would the Cavs have won multiple titles with LeBron and Kyrie leading them? Would Kyrie believe the Earth is round? I don’t know how that last question makes sense here, but the fact of the matter is that Kyrie’s injury in 2015 had a huge impact on who ended up holding the Larry O.B. trophy that year and much more.
- Kevin Durant – 2019 Warriors
This one is a no brainer for the top spot. During Kevin Durant’s three years on the Golden State Warriors, the team had a feeling of invincibility to them. Basketball fans consistently complained about how Durant “ruined” the NBA or made the league way too “unfair” by taking his talents to the Bay Area. I’m not going to try and analyze the effects Durant’s move had on the league and say whether it was good or bad for the NBA since that was discussed ad nauseam the last couple of years. He’s on a new team now, and whatever invincibility the Warriors had is now gone.
However, the Dubs with Durant for those three years truly felt unbeatable. It’s also worth mentioning before his first injury in the 2019 playoffs (Durant originally injured his calf in game five of the second round and then came back for game five of the NBA Finals where he ruptured his Achilles and had to miss the rest of the series which I don’t know why I’m typing out because if you follow basketball at all you already know that) Durant was playing like he was the best player in the entire league. Once he was out Kawhi Leonard took that title and the actual NBA title from him. There’s a few things that the basketball public seems to be in unanimous agreement on which are that the dunk contest needs stars, the one and done rule sucks, Mark Jackson needs some new catchphrases (maybe that’s just me), and that the Golden State Warriors would’ve definitely won the 2019 NBA title had it not been for Kevin Durant getting injured.