On April 21, the Phoenix Suns officially announced that the results of Devon Booker's MRI examination showed that Booker suffered a slight strain on his right hamstring and that the return date was undecided. According to sources, Booker is expected to miss the Suns' third and fourth games against the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round.
On the same day, the Milwaukee Bucks lost 110-114 to the Chicago Bulls, and Bucks forward Chris Middleton was injured in the middle of the fourth quarter. After the game, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said Middleton had a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee.
Budenholzer said: "We will have an MRI tomorrow. "This will determine the severity of Middleton's injury and provide the team with more information about when he will return.
Injuries are always unavoidable in competitive sports. After a long regular season, the player's body has experienced different degrees of fatigue, and the player is more likely to have strain injuries in the state of fatigue. The intensity of playoffs is far greater than that of unconventional games, and under such high intensity, both teams that reached the Finals last year lost home advantage in the first round, and core players suffered injuries. This is a big challenge for the Suns and Bucks, both aiming to win the championship.
Let's start with how much Booker's hamstring injury will affect top seed suns.
In the second game of the first round of the Suns' loss to the Pelicans, Booker scored 31 points in the first half to help the team lead in the first half, but he withdrew with an injury at the end of the third quarter. The Suns clenched the score difference in the crucial fourth quarter, but they were never able to overtake. At this time, the role of Booker was revealed, and the sun still lacked an absolute strong point that could be attacked at a critical moment. Looking at the Pelicans, Brandon Ingram hit consecutive shots in the last 3 minutes of the fourth quarter to directly harvest the game.
The Suns had a league-best record of 64 wins and 18 losses in the regular season, six of which came in 14 games booker's absence. Although half of those losses occurred in the last 8 days of the regular season. At that time, the Suns had already rotated several players. Still, Booker became the Suns' most important player, a candidate for the MVP and NBA's Best Team.
Booker's longest absence during the regular season occurred in early December, when he missed seven games with a strained hamstring on his other leg. During this time, the Suns scored 5 wins and 2 losses, but the difference was 3.1 points, which was significantly lower than the team's 7.4 points difference in wins throughout the season.
Naturally, the Suns are lucky to have a safety net. The experienced Chris Paul came on, and when Booker sat on the bench, he shifted his style of playing more like a scorer. According to NBA statistics, Paul's usage rose from 18 percent when two people played at the same time in the 736 minutes booker's absence. While Paul's scoring efficiency didn't drop under Booker's bench, his turnover rate rose from 2.2 per 36 minutes to 3.2.
Perhaps the biggest issue with Booker's absence is the timing of head coach Monty Williams' use of two star guards. Booker left the field injured, and Paul also needed to have a regular rest period, and the Suns were not present at the same time in the last 4 minutes and 35 seconds of the third quarter. During this period, the Suns lost 4 points.
Paul's single-handed score wasn't enough to make up for Booker's absence. Booker's 32% utilization rate this season is the highest in the team. Of the other Suns starts, no one had a higher percentage of possessions than Ayton's 21.4 percent. In Booker's absence, Ayton played nine games — three of them without Paul — and his scoring average rose from 16.8 with Booker to 19.3 points per game.
In the first game, the Suns won easily. Ayton scored 21 points on 10-of-15 shooting, while in the second game, Ayton scored just 10 points and made just six shots. When the Suns entered the closing stages without Booker, he was largely non-existent, scoring 2 points on 1-of-2 shooting in the final quarter. The Suns hope Ayton can integrate into the attack as early as possible in the third game.
We haven't mentioned Booker's possible replacement in the starting lineup yet: Landry Shamet. Shamet didn't get any time in the series before Booker left for the second game, but he played the remaining 17 minutes. Meanwhile, the Suns will certainly rely more on Payne to partner Shamet in the backcourt, but the backcourt duo is too small for the Pelicans' start. In the 14 games booked out of the regular season, Shamet started all of them, and in the third and fourth games, he is expected to get the starting position again.
Shamet's 41 percent three-point shooting percentage will help the Suns maintain space on the court, which is what Booker can provide when he plays without the ball. However, Shamet is not a shooter like Booker, and the defense is also relegated compared to Booker. The Suns G2's offense after Booker's exit was decent, but the Pelicans shot 69 percent from the field for the rest of the game, including a three-pointer of 7-of-9.
For Booker, hamstring injuries have plagued him over the past few seasons. Back in the 2020-21 season, Booker had missed four games with similar injuries. In November last year, Booker missed seven games with a left hamstring injury. During last year's finals, Booker suffered a hamstring injury in Game 3, but he insisted on fighting with the injury.
According to sports medicine expert Jeffries, he spoke about his views on Booker's injury. He said: "Booker suffered a slight strain of the hamstring, which is a first-degree strain. In general, this type of injury takes 7 to 10 days to recover. Jeffries advised Booker not to make a hasty comeback. He said Booker's injury was similar to what Harden suffered in the playoffs last year, and Harden's hasty comeback at that time was clearly not good.
On the other hand, if Middleton's injury is serious, it will be a major blow to the defending champion Bucks.
In the Bucks' second game against the Bulls, Middleton played 33 minutes and had 18 points, eight assists and five rebounds. With 6:45 left in the Bucks and Bulls game, Middleton suddenly left the game injured and headed straight back to the locker room. Before he made his way to the dressing room, he tried to stretch and bend his legs near the sidelines.
Giannis Antetokounmpo said after the game: "Hopefully he can get up and walk back into the game, but you see him limping and you think, 'Oh, hopefully there's no big deal.'" We need him. ”
With 25.5% of the regular season usage, Middleton averaged 20.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, and he was an excellent second-in-command who could stand up and share the pressure for Alphabet brother when he faced huge defensive pressure from his opponents. When he feels hot in the hand, he can easily cut 30+. He can also hit his back or pull it straight. Middleton is also a cunning playmaker, and although he sometimes plays more like a no-ball shooter, when he holds the ball, he can block and dismantle and find teammates to pass. In his second game against the Bulls, he repeatedly misplaced his back to singles Defender Alex Caruso, making fouls or passing the ball to a shooter on the perimeter.
Over the past two seasons, when Alphabet Brother, Middleton and Juil Holliday are on the court at the same time, the Bucks' record is 86-34 (71.7%), including in the playoffs. It's also worth mentioning that when Alphabet Brother and Holliday were paired but not Middleton, the Bucks scored more than their opponents by 7.8 points per 100 possessions.
Alphabet Brother, who cut 33 points and 18 rebounds in the game, said after the game: "Obviously, Middleton is one of the best players on our team and if he can't be with us, it will be a huge loss for us. ”
In game two of the series, the Bucks went to another key player in the rotation: Bobby Portis. He was hit in the face by Bulls center Tristan Thompson in the elbow of the first quarter and then blood flowed near his right eye. However, the referee did not blow any fouls. During intermission, Portis tried to make a brief thermal fire, but he only stayed on the pitch for a short time before returning to the dressing room. Subsequently, the Bucks announced that he would not return because of a bruise in his right eye.
Commenting on Portis' injury, Budenholzer said: "He had a slight abrasion in his right eye and we expect him to recover for a while and he will recover well." ”
All in all, after the playoffs in recent years, everyone has seen a truth: don't look at how strong the paper is, only the team that can maintain health is worthy of the end, worthy of the championship. Last year's Lakers, Clippers, and this year's CBA's Zhejiang Guangsha are all like this.