Apropos of PJ and Clint going to the floor with what could easily have been serious damage: So here's the math: If you play 10 guys in a game, that’s 0.19 injuries per game. Over the course of a four-game series, the number of injuries you can expect is 0.76. But over the course of a seven-game series, you can expect 1.33. Spread it out over a whole championship postseason: If you play four series of four games each, you can expect 3.04 injuries. Whereas if you play four series of seven games each, you can expect 5.32. This is based on regular-season NBA data. In the playoffs, athletes play tougher defense and take more risks, so you can expect the probabilities to go up. Even if you figure only 8 guys normally play, the difference between four rounds of four games each and four rounds of seven games each is about 2.4 injuries vs. 4.2 injuries. Lesson: Don't screw around. Don't play three more games in a series than you have to. We have an old team. Finish the job as efficiently as you can, heal what you can heal, and move on to the next round.
