Jazz vs. Mavs in round one

[Elizah Huge]

You don’t know if he’s putting weight on it. We have no idea what he is doing other than 10 second clips here and there. Him working out is a way to load the muscle without putting weight through it. He will have to hit certain milestones but I highly doubt he should be doing on court stuff a couple days after the injury. I could see them having him do on court activities a day before and then declaring him good to go.

Stotts basically said if game two is on Tuesday he wouldn’t be surprised to see him play… I’m guessing that means he thinks it’s likely by next Thursday. 11 days doesn’t seem majorly aggressive when you consider his age and that the 16 day average has a lot of regular season conservativeness built into it. If they are down 2-0 he comes back for game 3… if it’s 1-1 he waits for game 4 is my guess. The need to avoid losing hope… if they are down 3-0 it’s pretty hopeless… if they bring him back early and it gets aggravated then they lose hope.

I’d be shocked if we won 4-1 or 4-0… I’ll just put it that way.

Consider yourself shocked because we are sweeping.

 

[Sean]

I wish Luka was healthy.

The way I view it is - if we're a title contender, we should be able to beat them anyways. If we're not a title contender, then there's really no potential for accomplishing anything meaningful in this postseason - we beat the Mavs without Luka and then get crushed by the Suns, whoohoo.

Beating the Mavs with Luka would've been kinda cool.

I don't think the Jazz are contenders, though. They're a fifth seed for a reason and go through the history of the NBA Playoffs, at least from 1950, and you'll see only nine teams in history have made the Finals with a seed lower than three.

Only one, Houston in 1995, actually won it.

9 teams out of 150 or so. Statistically, it's not impossible - but quite improbable (like 1%).

And that's counting two with unusual circumstances:

Miami (5 seed) from 2020 during that wild COVID in the bubble season and New York (8 seed) from the lockout shortened 1999 season.

So, when you don't factor in anomaly NBA seasons or playoffs, which absolutely could have had an impact, we're looking at a total of seven teams since 1950.

It's just not a good number.

So, at this point, I just want the Jazz to win as many playoff games as possible. That's way more likely to happen with Luka out.

NBA seeding is important and absolutely dictates whether a team is a title contender. Utah isn't a title contender. History pretty much shows this.

 

[MT Steve]

I don't think the Jazz are contenders, though. They're a fifth seed for a reason and go through the history of the NBA Playoffs, at least from 1950, and you'll see only nine teams in history have made the Finals with a seed lower than three.

Only one, Houston in 1995, actually won it.

9 teams out of 150 or so. Statistically, it's not impossible - but quite improbable (like 1%).

And that's counting two with unusual circumstances:

Miami (5 seed) from 2020 during that wild COVID in the bubble season and New York (8 seed) from the lockout shortened 1999 season.

So, when you don't factor in anomaly NBA seasons or playoffs, which absolutely could have had an impact, we're looking at a total of seven teams since 1950.

It's just not a good number.

So, at this point, I just want the Jazz to win as many playoff games as possible. That's way more likely to happen with Luka out.

NBA seeding is important and absolutely dictates whether a team is a title contender. Utah isn't a title contender. History pretty much shows this.

Like I said, if we aren't contenders, then Luka being out means there's no potential for accomplishing anything meaningful this postseason. I think beating the Mavs with Luka would've been meaningful. Without him, meh.

 

[MT Steve]

Luka isn't putting weight on the calf and isn't cleared for on-court activity, let alone running and contact. Not sure what Jeff Stotts said, but this doesn't appear to be a very minor calf strain. I'd be very surprised if he's back a week from now, which is Game 3. If he is back that soon, it's because he's rushing to come back, and he won't be 100% or close to it.

Where did you get your medical degree from again?

 

[KqWIN]

I'm not going to speculate on Luka's timeline. I know this isn't objectively correct, but it really does feel like this series comes down to whether or not the Jazz beat themselves. They should win with or without Luka.

 

[fishonjazz]

I think the jazz are going to sweep. Quin was quoted as saying this is the healthiest and most rested team that he has ever had heading into the playoffs. All the media attention they have recently gotten about 4th quarter collapses and Don not passing to Rudy, etc has them all pissed off and biting at the chomp to come out and dominate. They are healthier, more experienced and more talented than the mavs and I think they have the bigger chip on their shoulders as well.
Mavs are ****ed.

 

[Douchebag K]

It looked like such a basic move, too, like guys run off their leg like that all the time, and it got injured? How???

mate i did mine the same, just a very mild push off starting to do a light jog forward in a cardio class. Fn painfull

 

[Douchebag K]

Where did you get your medical degree from again?

mate it's common knowledge, especially if you've had one. Luka being able to ride a bike means nearly nothing. I could ride a bike in a couple of days but i couldn't run on it for nearly a month when i did a grade 1 calf strain.

 

[homeytennis]

mate it's common knowledge, especially if you've had one. Luka being able to ride a bike means nearly nothing. I could ride a bike in a couple of days but i couldn't run on it for nearly a month when i did a grade 1 calf strain.

Mike Trout had the same injury and how many months was he out last year?

 

[Sean]

Like I said, if we aren't contenders, then Luka being out means there's no potential for accomplishing anything meaningful this postseason. I think beating the Mavs with Luka would've been meaningful. Without him, meh.

I don't think there will be anything meaningful accomplished with or without him to be honest. Even if Utah were to beat Dallas in the 4/5 match-up with Luka, this season will still be a massive disappointment. It'll be the same replay of pretty much every season we've experienced in the 21st Century - they might luck out and get a first-round series win but then go out with a whimper in the semifinals.

The thing is, I'd rather beat a Dallas squad without Luka than lose to a Dallas squad with Luka. At this point, I'm just wanting the Jazz to get as far as possible before everything inevitably comes to an end. The easiest pathway for that is for Luka to be out - then we can hopefully advance and maybe make a series of it against Phoenix. But Luka being in or out doesn't change any of that ... except his playing makes it less likely the Jazz advance anyway.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Another thing to keep in mind, teams don't allow the media to watch an entire practice...they usually allow them in for the last few minutes of practice or after the practice is over and guys are still on the court getting extra work in. These little 5 second clips of Luka on a stationary bike going around social media don't tell the whole story. We have no idea what he's doing behind the scenes, or whether or not he's putting any weight on his calf.

I don't think they wheeled him to the bike in a wheelchair ya know. I'm sure he's walking... any boot or compression sleeve is normal and cautious. I doubt he does on court work until the day before he plays.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

mate it's common knowledge, especially if you've had one. Luka being able to ride a bike means nearly nothing. I could ride a bike in a couple of days but i couldn't run on it for nearly a month when i did a grade 1 calf strain.

I've currently have a mild strain... took a week to feel good enough to try and play... I rushed back a little. I ended up re-injuring it. I was basically pain free walking around.

He will get the best medical treatment... he's young... I expect him to to play around half the games.

 

[MT Steve]

mate it's common knowledge, especially if you've had one. Luka being able to ride a bike means nearly nothing. I could ride a bike in a couple of days but i couldn't run on it for nearly a month when i did a grade 1 calf strain.

If it's common knowledge then why do actual doctors commenting on it disagree?

 

[Gameface]

Anything can happen. If the Jazz get out of the first round easily without any injuries or issues then they have their best chance in the second round. You don't know what kind of luck or misfortune the team they meet in the second round may be dealing with.

I know that all the naysaying is in part a self-defense mechanism for a lot of people but c'mon folks.

 

[LogGrad98]

I don't think the Jazz are contenders, though. They're a fifth seed for a reason and go through the history of the NBA Playoffs, at least from 1950, and you'll see only nine teams in history have made the Finals with a seed lower than three.

Only one, Houston in 1995, actually won it.

9 teams out of 150 or so. Statistically, it's not impossible - but quite improbable (like 1%).

And that's counting two with unusual circumstances:

Miami (5 seed) from 2020 during that wild COVID in the bubble season and New York (8 seed) from the lockout shortened 1999 season.

So, when you don't factor in anomaly NBA seasons or playoffs, which absolutely could have had an impact, we're looking at a total of seven teams since 1950.

It's just not a good number.

So, at this point, I just want the Jazz to win as many playoff games as possible. That's way more likely to happen with Luka out.

NBA seeding is important and absolutely dictates whether a team is a title contender. Utah isn't a title contender. History pretty much shows this.

I think it's the other way around. The real contenders are good enough during the regular season to finish in the top 3. Seeding doesn't determine the contender, the contenders rise in the seeding.

 

[Jingled]

mate it's common knowledge, especially if you've had one. Luka being able to ride a bike means nearly nothing. I could ride a bike in a couple of days but i couldn't run on it for nearly a month when i did a grade 1 calf strain.

I'm guessing you weren't receiving daily medical treatment from some of the best trainers in the world.

 

[Sean]

I think it's the other way around. The real contenders are good enough during the regular season to finish in the top 3. Seeding doesn't determine the contender, the contenders rise in the seeding.

That's the point. The idea that the regular season doesn't define the postseason is ridiculous. You are likely your seed and therefore if you're a five seed, you're not a contender.

The Jazz are a five seed for a reason. It's not for a lack of trying to be good, like some assume, and rather a result of the team not being as good as advertised prior to the season.

But you can look at a team's seed and pretty much know right away they're not a contender solely because their seeding is a result of 82 games and real contenders don't typically struggle consistently enough throughout the season to drop that far.

The one exception is Houston from 1995 and those anomaly years I mentioned where the Knicks won the East as an 8th seed.

 

[Elizah Huge]

Are people really getting upset that we are speculating over his injury lmao? He’s literally out for Game 1 I already told you guys this.

 

[MT Steve]

Are people really getting upset that we are speculating over his injury lmao? He’s literally out for Game 1 I already told you guys this.

I just think it's funny when I go to a Mavs forum, and everybody is like "I bet he's back by Game 1 or 2", people talking about the time they had a calf strain and were back on their feet within a few days, treating good news as gospel while making fun of bad news.

Then I go here and people are like "Yeah he's done for the series, look at how bad it looks, once time I had a calf strain and I was done for a month, yeah I know this actual doctor is disagreeing with me on social media but I don't care what he thinks", etc....

Didn't realize we had so many doctors among both fanbases - it's kind of intimidating.

 

[Gameface]

I just think it's funny when I go to a Mavs forum, and everybody is like "I bet he's back by Game 1 or 2", people talking about the time they had a calf strain and were back on their feet within a few days, treating good news as gospel while making fun of bad news.

Then I go here and people are like "Yeah he's done for the series, look at how bad it looks, once time I had a calf strain and I was done for a month, yeah I know this actual doctor is disagreeing with me on social media but I don't care what he thinks", etc....

Didn't realize we had so many doctors among both fanbases - it's kind of intimidating.

87.358% of sports fans are doctors