NBA: Injuries Have Put A Damper On The Opening Weeks Of The Season

By: Michael Crouchley – Staff Writer

The first game of the NBA season was a prime-time battle between the two heavyweights in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers.Having traded for the Cavs star point guard, Kyrie Irving, and added all-star Gordon Hayward through free agency, the Celtics were looking to dethrone the Cavaliers from the top of the East this year and keep them out of the Finals for the first time in three years.

This along with the narrative of Kyrie Irving returning to Cleveland for the first time since being traded this summer should’ve been enough to make this an Opening Night to remember. While it was memorable, it wasn’t in the way any of us had hoped.

Five minutes into the first quarter Gordon Hayward rose up to try to catch a lob and landed awkwardly on his left leg. Everyone could tell immediately that the injury was serious; to put it eloquently, his foot was definitely not facing the right direction.

Hayward’s injury was not as bad as it looked, he was later diagnosed with a dislocated ankle and a fractured tibia, and should make a full recovery. The bad news is that he will almost definitely miss the rest of the season.

The Celtics expectations were immediately switched from trying to challenge for a Finals appearance to trying to maintain high playoff seeding while developing their young core.
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On the other end of the spectrum, the Nets were looking to bounce back from a disastrous campaign last year. They finished with a record of 20-64, the worst in the entire league. The Nets fortune was slowly looking up. They had made some really great trades in the summer to help bring in young players and draft picks, most notably D’Angelo Russell who was the number two overall pick in 2015, and already looks like he’s going to have a breakout season this year. Adding proven veterans Allen Crabbe, DeMarre Carroll, and Timofey Mozgov made the Nets roster look almost decent.

Jeremy Lin, the Nets best player, stated “We’re making the playoffs” in an instagram video he posted before the start of the season. While it was already a long shot, the Nets playoff hopes look even more bleak after their season opener against the Indiana Pacers where they not only lost the game, but Lin went down with a ruptured patella tendon and will miss the remainder of the season. This injury is especially heartbreaking as Lin missed almost the entirety of last season with a knee injury as well. The Nets really cannot catch a break.

To add to the misfortune of these two serious injuries, some notable names including Chris Paul, Nic Batum, Milos Teodosic, Hassan Whiteside, Myles Turner, and Anthony Davis are all missing time due to injuries of their own. The NBA has caught the injury bug pretty hard early this season, and we can only hope that the Basketball Gods are a bit kinder to us as the season goes on.

Photo Taken from si.com and nba.com.