Injuries haven't ruined the NBA playoffs yet, but they're getting uncomfortably close to it

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Prince J. Grimes.

Hoops fans, how goes it?! Hope you’re all doing well on this beautiful Wednesday. After that new Kendrick Lamar dropped yesterday, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more than OK.

That said, if you’ll allow it, I do have one thing I’d like to vent about as we get set for another two playoff games tonight: why are there so many injuries this postseason? And how do we turn them off, for crying out loud?

Don’t get me wrong, these injuries haven’t completely ruined the playoffs. It’s still been a very entertaining first round, and it got even better after Tyrese Maxey’s legendary performance against the New York Knicks last night. He must’ve been bumping that Euphoria all day leading up to the game, because he embodied the spirit of Kung Fu Kenny and treated the Knicks like the basketball version of Drake, dropping 46 points on their heads, including seven in the last 25 seconds of the fourth quarter to force OT.

It was glorious.

Related: Tracy Morgan and Ben Stiller were as angry as all Knicks fans after the incredible Tyrese Maxey shot

But just imagine how much better the series could be in Joel Embiid wasn’t dealing with his health issues. Or how much more interesting the playoffs would be if the Milwaukee Bucks had a healthy Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Miami Heat had Jimmy Butler. Or if Kawhi Leonard wasn’t in and out of the Los Angeles Clippers lineup. Denver Nuggets savior Jamal Murray is also banged up (we think?). And now the latest to get hit with the injury bug is Kristaps Porzingis.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Boston Celtics big man could miss multiple weeks with a calf strain. It certainly could have worse, but as we’ve seen with Antetokounmpo, there’s no guarantee of a speedy return from a calf injury. This is still a real bummer.

"Kristaps Porziņģis has a right soleus strain, so this is a calf strain…I'm told this is going to be treated like a week to week injury, could be 1-2 weeks for Kristaps Porziņģis, could be even longer than that based on his rehab."@ShamsCharania on Kristaps Porziņģis' injury… pic.twitter.com/LgPcl1jYxU

— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) May 1, 2024

Now, look, the Celtics are stacked. They still have a really good chance to make a deep run no matter when Porzingis returns. They’re still favored by 14.5 points over the Miami Heat in tonight’s Game 5. I personally wouldn’t lay that many points with them short-handed, but I’m not too concerned about the Celtics. They should be able to win and advance.

But that’s not the point. This time of the year, you want to see every team be able to take their best swing with their top dogs relatively healthy — no excuses. And there is reason to worry about the Celtics long-term if Porzingis is unable to return to full strength sooner than later.

Even if you assume they can get past whoever they’d play in the Eastern Conference without him, I don’t love their chances against a team like Denver or Minnesota in a potential finals matchup. If they were to lose under these circumstances, we’d never stop hearing from Boston fans about what they would’ve done if Porzingis were healthy. I’m dreading it already.

So, yeah, I’m wishing the big man a speedy recovery, and every other injured player too. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed the injuries slow down from now on.

The King will take his time to make a decision

LeBron James addressed rumors about his future Tuesday, taking to X (formerly Twitter) to set the record straight on his plans for the 2024-25 NBA season. And, well, he said he doesn’t know.

There were rumors floating around social media that Monday would be James’ last game playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, and the 39-year-old declining to answer a question about his future after their loss to the Denver Nuggets only fanned the flames.

So he elaborated on X, saying he’ll let everyone know his next move when he knows. “When I know after speaking with the fam, my counsel as well as my representation about it then you guys will know,” he tweeted.

As FTW’s Cory Woodroof wrote, James’ player option this summer gives him leverage in regards to what the Lakers do next:

“The Lakers will undoubtedly want to keep James in house, so we’re guessing he’ll have a major say in the coaching decision, any possible roster moves and in the possibility Los Angeles could take his son, Bronny James, this summer in the 2024 NBA Draft.

It’ll be the defining storyline of the NBA offseason as one of the greats tries to figure out what he’ll do with the last chapter in his incredible career.”

Related: 5 candidates to coach the Lakers next season if Darvin Ham is fired

One to Watch

(All odds via BetMGM)

Miami Heat (+675) at Boston Celtics (-14.5; -1100), 7:40 p.m. ET

Dallas Mavericks (-150) at Los Angeles Clippers (+2.5; +125), 10:10 p.m. ET

Because I already gave a pick for the earlier game (Heat +14.5), I’ll focus on the second game here, and I have the Mavericks winning. Give me their moneyline. However, I’ll add, this pick has nothing to do with what we saw in the last game. It’s a gut pick based on the ebbs and flows of this series.

Things are knotted 2-2, and Dallas lost Game 4 after fighting so hard to take a late lead in the fourth quarter. I think Luka Doncic will come out energized to give more help to Kyrie Irving like he said he needed to, and the Mavs find a way to win with Kawhi Leonard still sidelined. Besides, there’s no way James Harden will have back-to-back great games in the playoffs, right?

Shootaround

— Ranking the most annoying 2024 NBA playoff ads

— Jon Stewart had the funniest tweet after his reaction to the Tyrese Maxey 3-pointer became a meme

— Kelly Oubre used a quirky dog metaphor to describe playing in the 76ers-Knicks OT thriller

— You can never take the In-Season Tournament title from the Lakers. Just as LA’s mayor

Alright, y’all. Enjoy tonight’s games. Catch you next time.