NBA Playoffs 2012 Running thread

LeBron goes bananas in the second quarter, Carmelo's 1-for-9 and Heat are crushing the Knicks. Also, worst flagrant foul call in the history of basketball on Tyson Chandler, for a screen on LeBron.

Thibs has done an amazing job but if Rose tore his knee with a minute to play when up double-digits, it's going to be a big mark on his record. They should still breeze past the Sixers, but obviously would open it up for Heat and Celtics.

 

They better have traveled then, because it's 40 degrees in your old home town.

 

NBA coaches never pull their stars when only up 10-12 with more than a minute left. Particularly in the playoffs.

 

Except they were up about 20 just a couple minutes earlier.

Garbage time had clearly begun in that game.

In his defense, though, Rose was probably going to get hurt at some point this series, whether it was in minute 48 or minute 1 of a game.

 

No, I agree Tony, it's not like it was unusual, although it should be. Should have clarified that I think a lot of people will consider it a black mark for Thibs but as you said, it happens all the time. But he's going to take a ton of heat simply because while countless NBA coaches have done the same thing at ends of games, an MVP has never torn his knee in the final minute of one of those blowouts. Phil Jackson drove me nuts sometimes with how long he'd leave Kobe in a game that was long over.

And Rose was probably due for an injury at some point, but hopefully this isn't one that could alter his career, even though most people do expect him to have a shorter superstar lifespan than most because of his style of play.

 

Doesn't the fact that it's a guy who has already suffered through multiple injuries this year alter the normal calculus about whether he should have been out there?

I guess that could cut the other way, too, in that Rose needed minutes to get back into playing shape and shake the rust off for what was going to be a deep playoff run until a couple hours ago.

 

Rose torn ACL.

 

Excuse me, torn ACL and MCL.

Ugh.

 

Well Christ. Now the Twitterz are saying those reports are premature.

 

Damn it.

East is going to be a lot less fun to watch; that potential Rose-Rondo matchup would have been sensational.

Anyone remember a top seed ever suffering a season-ending injury to the top player in the first round? Off the top of my head I can't.

Edit: Assuming he is out. Come on, Twitter. It does seem like it's a bit early for the diagnosis, although when it's really bad I think they can figure out early. But with Rubio, they had to wait a day for swelling to go down, I think, before they could even do an MRI.

 

If I understand some of this stuff correctly, trainers pretty much know when an ACL has been compromised simply by the way they can move a knee. MRIs are generally to confirm and assess the degree of damage.

 

Torn ACL, out for the playoffs.

Per David Haugh via Twitter.