CBC-Sports

Forget team chemistry, for NBA teams, priority No. 1 is health

May 1, 2009 10:59 PM | Posted by   Paul Jay  

If NBA players have a complaint about the regular season, it's that it's a grind: too many games, too many back-to-back games, too many road trips.

No one really feels sorry for them, mind you, but the point is this: come playoff time, the goal for teams with dreams of contention is not to be "clicking" or "in sync" or some other euphemism for "we pass the ball to each other." It's just to be healthy.

And this year, who is healthy and who is not is defining the second season. The Dallas Mavericks bounced the San Antonio Spurs, who with no Manu Ginobili and a gimpy Tim Duncan had no chance to beat anyone. The deck was similarly stacked against the New Orleans Hornets against Denver, especially with Tyson Chandler's big toe still smarting and Chris Paul not being his usual self.

The Boston Celtics are going down to the wire against Chicago in a series for the ages, but you have to figure they would have put away the Bulls long ago if it were not for the absence of Kevin Garnett. And who wins the next game in the Hawks-Heat game comes down to the question "How's Dwyane Wade feeling?"

Who's fit is the fitting question

If there is a sense of deja vu to all of this, it's that more often than not, the playoffs appear to be a case not of who's better but rather who's fitter? L.A. Lakers fans like to imagine how last year's finals would have been different had Andrew Bynum been healthy. Phoenix Suns fans lament how the "7 Seconds or Less" era could never overcome the loss of Amare Stoudemire during the season they had their best shot.

Some of this is one part wishful thinking and another part revisionist history: Who can say whether Bynum would have been effective against Boston last year? And who cares? It didn't happen.

No, if there is a lesson to be learned this off-season, it's that while no team can overcome the loss of, say, their entire starting lineup, the difference between the great teams this spring and the rest of the hopefuls is depth.

The Orlando Magic were facing the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 6 of their series with no Dwight Howard after the big centre was suspended for throwing an elbow. But Marcin "the Polish Hammer" Gortat came up big in reserve and the Sixers were stunned at home on Thursday night.

Depth down the middle

And the two leading contenders have also overcome injuries to key big men.

The Lakers might have been worried about the poor play of Bynum in the Utah series, but they hardly needed him in dispatching the Jazz. Bynum had played in just a few games at the end of the year after missing 32 during the regular season because of a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee, so he is still a work in progress. That might have hurt a lesser team, but the Lakers are so loaded it hardly matters. Should they get to the finals, Bynum's bulk will come in handy. Right now it's a luxury.

A similar situation is taking place in Cleveland, where Ben Wallace missed much of the second half of the season with a knee injury of his own, but came off the bench in the series sweep of the Detroit Pistons. Wallace was also an afterthought, scoring just two points in four games, but the Cavs hardly sweated it. Anderson Varajao, Zydraunus Ilgauskas and Joe Smith have more than made up the difference.

It's a lesson teams that have been sent packing could learn. Did New Orleans really expect to contend with backups like Hilton Armstrong manning the middle? Did the Spurs really think Matt Bonner and Roger Mason Jr. could make up for the loss of scoring when Ginobili went down? Yes, the NBA is a sport of stars, but teams need some depth. Otherwise advancing in the playoffs is a game of Russian roulette. Take note, Raptors.

The delicious coincidence in this year's playoffs is that if the Lakers and Cavaliers do meet in the playoffs, Bynum and Wallace could indeed be pivotal players in the final outcome, since Bynum's offence could keep the Cavs from aggressively focusing on Pau Gasol in the post, while Wallace could be the tough guy needed to push the Lakers around.

Better yet, they could end up of guarding each other as the first big men off the bench. Let's hope if they do that they can avoid knocking knees.

" Previous Post | Main
  •