On April 22, Beijing time, the 2021-22 NBA playoffs were in full swing. Earlier today, U.S. media publicly revealed the injuries of Suns star Booker and Bucks star Middleton. For the two teams aiming for the championship, their injury has undoubtedly cast a shadow over the team's prospects.
On Booker's side, according to the famous Brian Windhorst, Booker suffered a first-degree hamstring strain and is likely to miss 2-3 weeks. According to Suns coach Monty Williams, "Booker didn't train today and there were a lot of reports about Booker, but the team didn't set a timetable for his return. But from either angle, Booker's absence from the first round of G1 is almost a foregone conclusion, and the current Suns and Pelicans series are 1:1 overall, which also makes the Suns' prospects bearish.
Middleton's side, whose MRI results have been released, suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee and is expected to miss 3-4 weeks, which also means that Middleton will definitely miss the rest of the first round against the Bulls. It is even said that Middleton is likely to miss out on the Eastern Conference semifinals. To this, the Bucks alphabet brother said: "We will stand by his side and pray that he is all right." The Bucks and Bulls are currently in a 1-1 series, and will move to Chicago for G3 and G4.
It is worth mentioning that after the end of the first two games of the series, the famous media Statmuse counted a set of data. Every year since 2015, the championship team has won the first round of the series G2. In the past 17 seasons, as many as 16 teams have won the first round of G2, and only the Spurs in 2014 did not. As the overall champion and overall runner-up last season, the Bucks and Suns not only did not win the G2, but also lost in the G2, which will undoubtedly affect their prospects for the championship!
It should be noted that in the first round of G2 in this year's playoffs, the teams that won were: Heat, Celtics, Bulls, 76ers, Pelicans, Grizzlies, Warriors and Lone Rangers. According to statmuse's law, this season's championship is likely to be produced between these 8 teams.
It is worth mentioning that the Nets, another favorite team for the championship, not only lost G2, but also fell behind 0:2 on the aggregate, and the promotion situation was very grim.