The 2012 NBA Playoffs continues to lose it’s stars. One by one, players are falling to injuries. Not exactly what the fans expected or hoped for entering the postseason. One could even say the shortened season is cursed. It seems as though each game played where someone doesn’t get injured, the team has fortunately eluded the curse.
It began during the regular season. Big names were lost there and the tone was set to foreshadow the playoffs like a Charles Dickens novel.
Dwight Howard ended his year with back surgery. Ricky Rubio was lost midway and subsequently could have given Minnesota a chance to make the 8th seed in the West. Other playoff contenders lost key pieces as well in Ray Allen, Al Horford, and Jeremy Lin shortly before the postseason began.
We all saw the assault on James Harden by Metta World Peace, giving him a seven game suspension.
To say the least, the promise of this shortened season has faltered.
Alas, the excitement for the playoffs did not wane. That is until the ACL tear heard round the world. Derrick Rose went down at the end of game one against the 76ers. It’s rough watching last years MVP get knocked out for the rest of the year. Chicago’s chances have dropped dramatically and so has the interest in that series. Not good for the NBA.
That was only the beginning. The very next game, New York’s Iman Shumpert was struck with the same injury, ending his season as well. Two torn ACL’s right off the back.
After those two games the mayhem began everywhere. Rajon Rondo made contact with an official and was suspended one game by the league.
Josh Smith injured his knee and is questionable for game three at Boston.
Caron Butler from fractured his hand and will not return.
San Antonio’s Tiago Splitter (wrist) and Matt Bonner (thigh) are listed as questionable for game three vs. Utah.
And of course let’s not forget Amare Stoudemire, who lacerated his hand punching a fire extinguisher after game two in Miami. He sat game three and is day to day going forward.
The superstar driven postseason is taking hit after hit. I could say it’s not a curse just a string of unfortunate events. I could say we are lucky we haven’t lost more big names. But the playoffs just started, and I can’t help but hold my breath every time someone hits the floor. An eerie undertone to these games is settling and fans can only pray their players make it out alive and on top.
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