George Hill missed Game 5 of the series between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks. The Pacers' loss sends the teams back to Indianapolis for Game Six on Saturday, but will Hill be back on the floor? Let's take a look at the questions he and the Pacers face:

What happened?

During Game 4, Hill, listed at 6'2", took an elbow to the head from Tyson Chandler, who is 7'1" tall. This kind of height differential often leads to concussions, as an accidental elbow is more likely. The NBA's strict policies against elbows (this rulebook page has more than a dozen elbow references) prevent this from happening more often with players of equal height, where the players have more control.

While symptoms did not come on fully until the following day, the damage was done at this point. Looking at tape, there's no real sign that Hill was dealing with anything other than the initial trauma and a bit of pain at this stage, which is no surprise. The medical staff acted appropriately and was seen speaking with Hill at the next game break. (The video below is cued to a replay of Hill and Chandler colliding.)

Thursday, Hill was able to participate in the shootaround, but did complain of a headache. He was given medication and put under the terms of the NBA's concussion protocol. Hill was tested that afternoon and when he did not pass, he was ineligible to play.  

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Dwayne Wade is hobbled by a knee injury just as the Miami Heat are ready to blow through the injury-riddled Chicago Bulls.

What is going on with his knee, and will the rest between the end of this round and the next give Wade time to heal? Let's take a look:

A bruise? Really?

When I say "bruise", you likely think of a black and blue mark on the body. While a contusion is often followed by the discoloration, pain and swelling if on the surface, it's not the only kind of bruise that can be found. 

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There are a lot of pitchers close to comebacks. With Zack Greinke making a quick comeback from his collarbone fracture and Jered Weaver not far behind him, not to mention Johnny Cueto's return, we will see a lot of pitching coming back to the mound. The problem is that there are just as many heading out with injury. 

It's been 15 years since Pitcher Abuse Points was debuted by Dr. Rany Jazayerli, and it may be the most influential piece of baseball research in the history of the game.

When it came in, 150-pitch games were a regular occurrence—not common, but regular—and today, the media freaks out when Yu Darvish goes 127. Managers, even the ones that say they're not sabermetrically minded, are managing by a stat, just like they are handling their bullpens by the save. 

The issue is that while Jazayerli's research was intended as a warning against regular overuse and gave teams a tool by which to measure the risk of an extended outing, teams decided against measuring and largely abandoned the practice. Adding to the issue was the contemporary La Russization of bullpens, increasing the size and changing the usage of the pen. It allowed managers to pull their starter at 100 pitches or less.

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At its simplest, 140 characters is enough to explain how Stephen Curry was able to get back on the floor for Game 4 as the Warriors tied up their Western Conference playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs:

Painkilling injections are not new and have roots in sport that go all the way back to the ancient Greek Olympics. While the Greeks didn't have needles, they did regularly take hallucinogenic concoctions that made runners faster and wrestlers go berserk. 

In modern sports, the image of a needle going into the injured space is usually wrong, as noted in a landmark study of painkillers. Keeping that in mind, it is very unlikely that Curry is taking a cortisone shot into his ankle. Instead, he's most likely taking a Toradol shot in his backside. 

Besides Curry for his ankle, candidates for this treatment also include the Chicago Bull's Joakim Noah (foot) and the New York Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire (knee).

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Roy Halladay struggled throughout the 2013 season. His arm slot has changed, likely because he was trying to find a comfortable way to get the ball to the plate. That change is common and signals damage inside the shoulder, which is exactly what was found upon imaging.

Halladay will now have arthroscopic surgery to correct a frayed labrum and rotator cuff, as well as clean up bone spurs or debris inside the shoulder.

While damage to the labrum and cuff can be devastating, Halladay and his doctor, Neal ElAttrache of the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic, feel confident that the damage is minor. The biceps, labrum and rotator cuff often work in concert, leading Dr. Stephen O'Brien to call the area the "biceps-labrum complex."

Minor fraying is an indication that the area has been stressed over time, but has not given out completely. The location of the fraying would be instructive, but as of now, there's been no comment on this. The likely areas are in the back of the shoulder, where pain from both types of injuries tends to be felt. 

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It's hard to watch the video of J.A. Happ getting hit in the head, as it should be. We end up with a lot of "ifs" after seeing the result. If the ball had been hit a bit harder, if the ball had hit a different spot or if the medical care wasn't quick and world class, would the result have been tragic?

More and more, these questions aren't hypothetical for baseball players. Time after time, pitchers are being hit by "comebackers" and it's only a matter of time before the result is significantly worse than what we're seeing with J.A. Happ. While fractured skulls and multiple stitches are bad enough, MLB has yet to see the deaths that have occurred at the youth and scholastic levels.  

Happ appears to have been hit on the side of the head. From one angle, there looks to be blood on or in Happ's ear, perhaps signifying where the ball struck him. This is a very similar location to where Brandon McCarthy was hit. With McCarthy, the ball struck more solidly, fracturing his skull and necessitating surgical release of the pressure. 

Happ went down and stayed down, but the medical staff acted promptly. He was soon stabilized and rapidly stretchered off the field. It took a total of 11 minutes of game-delay to do all the work that both teams' medical staffs, plus doctors on site and EMS needed to do. There are two hospitals within minutes of Tropicana Field, so it's quite probable that Happ was to the emergency room for tests and treatment inside of 15 minutes. That's the type of response that could have made all the difference in a life-threatening situation. 

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Joe Posnanski recently wrote an intriguing article about the difference between most American sports and the English Premier League. While the World Cup and Champions League are run in a playoff style, the Premiership has no playoffs at all. The best team over the long season wins.

Strength of schedule isn't an issue either, given the home and home scheduling. The NBA, on the other hand, has created a system where one wrong step could wipe out a season's work for LeBron James or Manu Ginobili.

The NBA isn't going to abandon the playoffs or shorten their regular season, but the playoff format is a fickle beast that's rendered even more so by the need to maximize television revenues. I understand that need, but it adds an element of randomness to the playoffs that can actually tip series. 

A player that injures himself just before a schedule gap gets a real bonus of time that can be priceless in returning a player to function. A player that sprains an ankle or feels his back tighten up going into a Friday-Sunday set could end up missing the second game. 

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The Chicago Bulls made it into the second round of the NBA playoffs without their star point guard, Derrick Rose. Rose remains out after having ACL reconstruction done on his left knee in May of 2012. His absence is becoming more controversial as his team continues to play and as his teammates continue to play through pain.

With Joakim Noah hobbled by painful plantar fasciitis, Kirk Hinrich felled by a calf strain, Luol Deng watching games from his hospital bed and Nate Robinson vomiting on the bench and going back into the game, Rose is nattily dressed in a suit and an indifferent expression. 

What are the continuing medical questions that are keeping Rose on the bench and how will they affect the Bulls this year and next? Let's look at those in more depth.

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