To read more about the ongoing controversy around Kevin Durant’s Achilles injury and the Golden State Warriors medical staff from an insider’s perspective, Etan Thomas wrote earlier today about why he believes team doctors don’t have the players’ best interests at heart.
Preamble
Somehow, we’ve reached Game 6 of one of the oddest and most impossible to predict NBA Finals I can remember in a long while. It feels like the Toronto Raptors should have wrapped things up in Game 5 when they took a lead heading into the game’s final minutes but the Golden State Warriors were able to finagle a comeback and just manage to survive and pull off a 106-105 win.
All of his means there will be, in fact, one final game at Oracle Arena and the Warriors have a chance to feed off the energy of their hometown crowd in Oakland one last time before they abandon them for San Francisco. (Hey, the NBA is a cold business for fans sometimes.) It’s still an elimination game, mind you, and these Raptors remain a tough opponent. If Draymond Green hadn’t gotten a piece of Kyle Lowry’s attempted buzzer-beater in Game 5’s closing seconds this one might already be over.
Now, they officially will be without Kevin Durant, whose Achilles injury will be looming over whatever time remains in these Finals. There are plenty of questions now about whether the Warriors pushed him too hard to return too early. It’s also thrown free agency in complete disarray, given how much everything was revolving around Durant’s decision. While it may seem to be too soon to think about such things, the offseason could come to an unofficial beginning in the next few hours.
The Warriors, however, will be looking to keep it alive for one final game. So, today we find out if that’s the end of the NBA season or if they take a page from the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs and give us all a Game 7. Stay tuned here to see how things go and, as always, feel free to contribute with your comments and questions, either by sending them via email (to [email protected]) or Twitter (to @HunterFelt). It’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors at Oracle Arena! Opening Tip is scheduled sometime after 9:00pm EST but we’ll be back before then.
Hunter will be here shortly, in the meantime here is the latest on Kevin Durant’s injury:
Kevin Durant confirmed what everyone most feared: He underwent surgery for a ruptured right achilles tendon.
Durant posted on social media Wednesday the severity of his injury two days after getting hurt during Game 5 of the NBA finals in Toronto in his return from a strained right calf that sidelined him a month.
The 30-year-old posted a photo on Instagram showing himself in a hospital bed and wrote: “I wanted to update you all: I did rupture my Achilles. Surgery was today and it was a success, EASY MONEY.”
Read the full story below: