NBA Playoffs 2012: How the Compressed Regular Season Will Ruin Playoffs
Making any kind of connection between the first round's quick-hitting injuries and the condensed regular-season schedule obviously requires some speculation.
That doesn't mean the speculation is baseless, though.
Sure, ACL tears aren't the direct product of repeated impact or fatigue, and Caron Butler's broken hand would have probably been just as likely after a comfortably-paced 82-game season. But that doesn't mean we can't blame this year's compressed schedule to at least some degree.
Despite the unpredictable nature of freak accidents like the torn ACLs suffered by Derrick Rose and Iman Shumpert, it's hard to believe that fatigue didn't increase the probability of an injury. Guys don't move as well without rest, and that could have any number of indirect consequences.
Commissioner David Stern thinks otherwise, and he's relying on the medical opinion of an NBA-paid consultant to prove as much. The surgeon in question, Dr. David Altchek, has conveniently suggested that ACL injuries have nothing to do with wear and tear.
In fact, according to Altchek, fatigue is more likely to prevent such injuries by limiting the kind of explosiveness that typically causes them. After all, the foot and ankle injuries Rose suffered this year weren't on the same leg as the now-defunct ACL.
Perhaps that closes the case. We certainly don't have a more definitive second opinion to go on.
Still, one wonders if the repeated injuries to one leg could have caused Rose to plant awkwardly. That's not an uncommon reaction from a player who's been conditioned to treat injured body parts more gingerly than healthy ones.
Even if there's no sound medical link between the shortened season and injury, there's little question that it has impacted player fatigue and the game plans designed to prevent that fatigue.
Just ask the San Antonio Spurs and Chicago Bulls, two teams who played with 10-man rotations for much of the season in an effort to keep key stars fresh.
But after a ferocious run since the All-Star break, the Boston Celtics certainly looked a bit tired in their baffling 74-point outing against the Atlanta Hawks.
A shortened schedule certainly isn't exclusively to blame for the implosion, but Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett weren't at their best—they shot a combined 13-38 from the field. That may be a fluke, but it could also be a consequence of a schedule that wasn't designed for old legs.
There's also a chance the season played a part in previous injuries that have kept the likes of Dwight Howard and Jeremy Lin sidelined.
It's too soon to know just how much effect the lockout-shortened season will have on the playoffs. For now, however, the signs point mostly in the same direction.
That direction might be an inconvenient truth for David Stern, but it's a far more inconvenient reality for the fans deprived of a postseason at full strength.
