Did some digging to see how much injuries have played a factor in previous seasons given all the whining about a ruined postseason and an illegitimate championship. First year I looked up was 2013 and this is all I found
-Lakers lose Kobe to a torn achilles in the final week of the season. Dwight Howard begins the season slow still recovering from back surgery. Tears a labrum in his right shoulder in early January but only misses a couple games as he wears a protective sleeve to play through the ailment despite aggravating it regularly. Steve Nash suffers a non displaced fracture in his left leg in the second game of the season which causes him to miss nearly seven weeks. Returns in late December, plays relatively well offensively, and then misses the last eight games of the year with a hip and hamstring injury. Returned for the first round series against the Spurs but missed the final two games with recurring hamstring and hip issues. Pau Gasol missed thirty three games of the regular season due to concussion and a tear in his right foot and has the worst year of his career. Spurs sweep injury riddled Lakers
-Warriors all star David Lee tears his right hip flexor in the very first game of the postseason. Curry sprains his ankle in a game three loss to the Spurs, is visibly hobbled the rest of the series. Bogut is limited by a nagging ankle injury. Lose to Spurs in 6 games of the semi finals
-Thunder lose Westbrook to meniscus tear due to Patrick Beverley's overly agressive fukkery in game 2 of the quarterfinals. Thunder manage to beat the Rockets on the back of Kevin Durant despite this but would go on to lose to the Grizzlies in five games of the semifinals. Spurs "avoid" the Thunder who maintained the best record in the conference that season, the top SRS rating in the NBA (Very strong metric for determining championship odds) and had gentleman swept them the previous year. Spurs sweep the Grizzlies instead in the conference finals
-Nuggets lose starting small forward and second leading scorer Danilo Gallinari to torn ACL weeks before postseason. Defeated by the Warriors in 6 games in the semifinals
-Celtics lose all star point guard Rajon Rondo to ACL tear in late January. Celtics fall to Knicks in 6 games of the first round
-Clippers all star Blake Griffin suffers a right high ankle sprain in the middle of the first round against the Grizzlies. Plays a total of thirty four minutes in the final two games of the series, Grizzlies win in 6
-Knicks all star Carmelo Anthony suffers a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder that he repeatedly aggravated throughout the postseason. Sixth man of the year JR Smith dealt with a damaged patella tendon and a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee that required surgery in the offseason. Former defensive player of the year Tyson Chandler misses 14 of the final 20 games of the regular season with a bulging disk in his neck that clearly hampered him in the postseason. They all perform far below their standards and the Knicks lose in six games to the Pacers in the semi finals
-Bulls all star Luol Deng is out for the season due to a spinal tap procedure gone terribly wrong. Derrick Rose misses the entire year recovering from his ACL tear sustained in the 2012 playoffs. Noah deals with plantar fasciitis in his foot but guts it out anyway. Bulls lose in five to the Heat in the second round
-Dallas Mavericks future first ballot hall of famer Dirk Nowitzki plays the least games in a season since his rookie year due to a knee injury. Mavericks do not make the postseason for the first time in over a decade
-Rockets starting PG Jeremy Lin suffers a chest contusion against the Thunder in game 2 of the quarterfinals. Misses the next two games and only receives 13 minutes in game six. Now obviously Lin isn't that great of a player but this is an injury to starting point guard, so its newsworthy
-Dwyane Wade as per usual is severely bothered by a knee bruise throughout the postseason. Sits game 4 of the first round sweep against the Bucks as a precaution in order to rest up but aggravates it repeatedly in future games. Averages a career low 15.9 points per game in the postseason. Guts it out, contributes to the Heat's 3rd title as they win it all anyway
-Wolves franchise player Kevin Love breaks his shooting hand in a morning workout in mid October. Returns just a few weeks later in November but breaks it again against the Nuggets in early January and undergoes season ending surgery to repair the fracture. He only plays 18 games on the year
-Reigning rookie of the year Kyrie Irving breaks his hand, index finger and a bone in his jaw all in the same season
There's probably several more but the above is enough to reinforce the obvious point that this is not the only season where injuries were rampant and potentially changed the landscape of the postseason. Had the Spurs won it all that year I'd have been curious to see if anyone brought up the fact that they did not have to play the actual #1 seed in the conference OKC Thunder, Lakers with Kobe who actually had one of the best records in the game post ASB, a Warriors team without their all star PF AND their best player injured or a healthy Wade who at his best would've made that finals alot less competitive than it actually was. I'll research other years some other time but I'd gamble on there being several more cases just like 2013
-Lakers lose Kobe to a torn achilles in the final week of the season. Dwight Howard begins the season slow still recovering from back surgery. Tears a labrum in his right shoulder in early January but only misses a couple games as he wears a protective sleeve to play through the ailment despite aggravating it regularly. Steve Nash suffers a non displaced fracture in his left leg in the second game of the season which causes him to miss nearly seven weeks. Returns in late December, plays relatively well offensively, and then misses the last eight games of the year with a hip and hamstring injury. Returned for the first round series against the Spurs but missed the final two games with recurring hamstring and hip issues. Pau Gasol missed thirty three games of the regular season due to concussion and a tear in his right foot and has the worst year of his career. Spurs sweep injury riddled Lakers
-Warriors all star David Lee tears his right hip flexor in the very first game of the postseason. Curry sprains his ankle in a game three loss to the Spurs, is visibly hobbled the rest of the series. Bogut is limited by a nagging ankle injury. Lose to Spurs in 6 games of the semi finals
-Thunder lose Westbrook to meniscus tear due to Patrick Beverley's overly agressive fukkery in game 2 of the quarterfinals. Thunder manage to beat the Rockets on the back of Kevin Durant despite this but would go on to lose to the Grizzlies in five games of the semifinals. Spurs "avoid" the Thunder who maintained the best record in the conference that season, the top SRS rating in the NBA (Very strong metric for determining championship odds) and had gentleman swept them the previous year. Spurs sweep the Grizzlies instead in the conference finals
-Nuggets lose starting small forward and second leading scorer Danilo Gallinari to torn ACL weeks before postseason. Defeated by the Warriors in 6 games in the semifinals
-Celtics lose all star point guard Rajon Rondo to ACL tear in late January. Celtics fall to Knicks in 6 games of the first round
-Clippers all star Blake Griffin suffers a right high ankle sprain in the middle of the first round against the Grizzlies. Plays a total of thirty four minutes in the final two games of the series, Grizzlies win in 6
-Knicks all star Carmelo Anthony suffers a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder that he repeatedly aggravated throughout the postseason. Sixth man of the year JR Smith dealt with a damaged patella tendon and a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee that required surgery in the offseason. Former defensive player of the year Tyson Chandler misses 14 of the final 20 games of the regular season with a bulging disk in his neck that clearly hampered him in the postseason. They all perform far below their standards and the Knicks lose in six games to the Pacers in the semi finals
-Bulls all star Luol Deng is out for the season due to a spinal tap procedure gone terribly wrong. Derrick Rose misses the entire year recovering from his ACL tear sustained in the 2012 playoffs. Noah deals with plantar fasciitis in his foot but guts it out anyway. Bulls lose in five to the Heat in the second round
-Dallas Mavericks future first ballot hall of famer Dirk Nowitzki plays the least games in a season since his rookie year due to a knee injury. Mavericks do not make the postseason for the first time in over a decade
-Rockets starting PG Jeremy Lin suffers a chest contusion against the Thunder in game 2 of the quarterfinals. Misses the next two games and only receives 13 minutes in game six. Now obviously Lin isn't that great of a player but this is an injury to starting point guard, so its newsworthy
-Dwyane Wade as per usual is severely bothered by a knee bruise throughout the postseason. Sits game 4 of the first round sweep against the Bucks as a precaution in order to rest up but aggravates it repeatedly in future games. Averages a career low 15.9 points per game in the postseason. Guts it out, contributes to the Heat's 3rd title as they win it all anyway
-Wolves franchise player Kevin Love breaks his shooting hand in a morning workout in mid October. Returns just a few weeks later in November but breaks it again against the Nuggets in early January and undergoes season ending surgery to repair the fracture. He only plays 18 games on the year
-Reigning rookie of the year Kyrie Irving breaks his hand, index finger and a bone in his jaw all in the same season
There's probably several more but the above is enough to reinforce the obvious point that this is not the only season where injuries were rampant and potentially changed the landscape of the postseason. Had the Spurs won it all that year I'd have been curious to see if anyone brought up the fact that they did not have to play the actual #1 seed in the conference OKC Thunder, Lakers with Kobe who actually had one of the best records in the game post ASB, a Warriors team without their all star PF AND their best player injured or a healthy Wade who at his best would've made that finals alot less competitive than it actually was. I'll research other years some other time but I'd gamble on there being several more cases just like 2013
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