The second round of the NBA playoffs are only halfway done, and five All-Stars have already suffered injuries during these playoffs: Stephen Curry, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum. Tatum, the star Boston Celtics forward, ruptured his Achilles in their Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night, the Celtics announced on Tuesday. Tatum also sat out a game in the first round with a bone bruise in his right wrist.
This now marks eight consecutive seasons in which at least five All-Stars have missed a playoff game, after that occurred only four times between 1977 and 2017. The 2021 playoffs, following a condensed regular season schedule and the COVID-19 pandemic, saw a record 10 All-Stars sidelined for at least a game, and that number for the 2022 postseason was eight.
Keeping stars on the court is a point of emphasis for the NBA. In the 2023 collective bargaining agreement, the league and its players agreed to a rule requiring players to play in at least 65 regular season games to be eligible for certain end-of-season awards. Then, prior to the 2023-24 season, the league introduced a Player Participation Policy to discourage healthy stars from resting games.
“Based on one season of data, we’re happy with the 65-game rule,” commissioner Adam Silver said in a June 2024 press conference. “Whether there’s some connection in terms of additional injuries and playoffs, we don’t know. This is an area that confounds us in some ways.”
There is consensus among analysts that the NBA’s pace and space era has made the game harder on players’ bodies. Indeed, according to the NBA’s tracking data, players run nearly 10% more miles per 48 minutes on court than they did a decade ago in 2015. It’s no surprise that the more a player runs, the more likely he is to get injured.
Despite this data showing a more demanding style of play, the NBA’s regular season remains 82 games long. Silver has stated in interviews that the league has no data indicating that a longer season leads to a greater frequency of injuries.
Tatum, the latest casualty of the NBA’s postseason injury bug, will likely earn his fourth straight first team All-NBA honor, which would make him the 30th player in league history to accomplish that feat, and just the 17th since the NBA/ABA merger in 1977. The 27-year-old forward put up 42 points on 16-for-28 shooting at Madison Square Garden Monday night in addition to four steals and two blocks before he was carried off the court with three minutes remaining.
Boston won the title in 2024 but will be without its superstar as it faces a 3-1 deficit in the 2025 Eastern Conference semifinals. The franchise is on the books for roughly $228 million in salary next season plus a $238 million luxury tax bill, according to Spotrac—a financial situation that could precipitate offseason moves. Monday could have been the last time we see the Celtics’ championship nucleus on the court together.