BY HENRY ABBOTTELSA/GETTY IMAGESWith about four minutes left in Wednesday’s Game 2 between the Mavericks and the Clippers, it struck me that there was not a lot of running or jumping happening. Whole plays unfolded at walking speed. The Clippers hadn’t scored in ages; their only bucket had been an unguarded, standing-still Russell Westbrook, once the most explosive athlete in the NBA. Now: maybe nobody was?The Mavericks’ offense featured a lot of standing, as everyone watched Luka Dončić shove his butt into some Clipper. When this style of offense was common in the NBA, they changed the rules to inspire more movement, to make the game more fun to watch.Soon enough, Luka drained a 3 and may have frightened Tom Haberstroh’s child. To my eyes, though, it was relief more than vigor. Luka looked exhausted before that shot and had been missing short for a while .Poor Jared Greenberg, TNT reporter, happened to be going off about how Luka, this year, really had dialed in his conditioning. Precisely as Greenberg described Luka’s two-a-days, Luka walked over to the bench and sat down. Mavs head coach Jason Kidd had done something I hadn’t seen before. He subbed Luka out so he wouldn’t have to stand through some free throws. Then the Mavs called timeout and checked Luka back in.In a lot of sports, athletes show up at the start line at their best. Brimming with life force and go juice. Basketball is a beautiful and explosive sport; who turned it into a war of attrition?According to Cleaning the Glass, these are the players who have been better or worse than normal since the end of the NBA regular season. Note that All-Stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Julius Randle have been out indefinitely. It’s hard to find a measure of verve and pep, readiness. But here’s one crude approach: Cleaning the Glass compares players to themselves and notes who played better and worse than they normally do. The truth is that big stars, who tend to be older, and at the tail end of a regular season of long minutes, are showing up in the “worse” column a lot. I’ve started watching the playoffs really differently. When you see someone do something vigorous, like Isaiah Hartenstein’s game-winning offensive rebound in Game 2, just note who is moving like that. Hartenstein is just 25 and played a thousand minutes less than a lot of All-Stars this season. Meanwhile, many recent NBA headlines have featured injuries to big stars:Giannis Antetokounmpo sat down on the floor in the middle of a game against the Celtics a couple of weeks ago and hasn’t played since.Zion Williamson ended a signature Play-In performance last Tuesday with a hamstring strain that has kept him out ever since.The next night, Jimmy Butler strained his MCL on national TV, then kept playing on one leg; he’s now likely out a month or more.On Sunday, Kawhi Leonard missed Game 1 of the Clippers’ playoffs, and he’s listed as questionable for tonight’s Game 3 with right knee inflammation.Knicks star Julius Randle hasn’t played in a very long time.Those are just from playoff teams. (Not to mention players like Ja Morant, whose team might be in the playoffs if they had Ja Morant.) Missing players like that is a hell of a thing for the sport and its fans. Researching a book about how to build more robust bodies, I watched a behind-the-scenes YouTube series about how the Phoenix Suns train. It’s all people earnestly looking into the camera talking about building resilience, cutting-edge science, and overnight oats. As I watched some Suns staffer sharing their brilliant snacking strategy, I couldn’t help but wonder: Are you even good at this?The Suns are making headlines for lifelessness. Each of their stars has appeared on Cleaning the Glass for playing worse than normal in the playoffs.Not to pick on the Suns. Only Pascal Siakam seems to be at his best right now. The Lakers have four players listed as out, and their two stars as probable. Tyrese Haliburton has not been himself since his January hamstring injury in January. Khris Middleton didn’t practice and is questionable with an ankle sprain. And then we get to Joel Embiid, who might be the best player in the world, and just somehow scored an incredible 50 points with only half his legs and half his face working normally. On the one hand, it’s a heroic sports story of overcoming obstacles. On the other hand, why are so many of the obstacles self created? Embiid’s body is clearly under stress. Wouldn’t it be fun to see what he could do at his best?Thank you for reading TrueHoop!



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