Jamal Murray, one of the breakout stars of the NBA Bubble in Orlando last summer (he hung a pair of 50-burgers on Utah in the playoffs), was averaging a career-best 21.2 points per game before a torn ACL suffered late in Monday’s loss to Golden State spelled an abrupt end to his 2020-21 season. Even with MVP candidate Nikola Jokic wreaking his usual havoc (he finished two assists shy of what would have been his 15th triple-double Monday night), it’s hard to envision Denver making a deep postseason run without its star point guard at the controls.
Obviously losing Murray is a huge blow to the Nuggets’ title chances, though it also illustrates a greater problem that exists within the NBA. Players have been dropping like flies this season—superstars LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid have all missed significant time—a concerning trend not lost on Josh Hart. The Pelicans guard says it’s no coincidence players like Murray have succumbed to costly injuries on a near-nightly basis. Hart argues this season’s condensed schedule—a product of the NBA still playing catch-up from last year’s COVID delay—hasn’t given players adequate recovery time, which would explain the recent rash of injuries to star performers like Giannis Antetokounmpo, LaMelo Ball, James Wiseman and Fred Van Vleet.
Prior to Monday night, Murray had sat out the previous four games with an injury to his other knee. The hectic pace of this year’s schedule has clearly taken a toll on players, who are burning the candle at both ends with frequent back-to-backs and sometimes as many as four games in a given week. The NBA’s insistence on holding an All-Star Game last month was met with very little enthusiasm by players, many of whom are still exhausted from last season (the 73 days between the Finals and Opening Night marked the league’s shortest offseason in its 75 years of existence).
With the COVID vaccine continuing to make the rounds, hopefully the NBA can restore some sense of normalcy with a more relaxed schedule next season. But for Murray and the title-minded Nuggets, the damage is already done.
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