I am calling it now re Clippers

[Celtics18]

They were also beaten both times in the past two years when one or both of their best players were hobbled.

CP3 and Blake were both very banged up against the Spurs, and Blake wasn't right after game 2 (I think) of the Grizzlies first round series.

If one of your top 2 players is ineffective due to injury then all bets are off, no matter how good your team is. See for example the 2008-2009 Celtics, pushed to 7 games by the Bulls.

Yeah I mean you can use the injury excuse every year for a lot of teams. We lost KG entirely one year, Rondo playing with one arm literally one year, Pierce and Ray banged up year after year and weren't "right" among others.

The Clips are going on their 3rd year. If we are still using Paul and Blake being banged up as an excuse it will be getting a little old and a little soft.

Just because it's a widely applicable thing doesn't mean that it isn't accurate--and, frankly, I don't understand why it would count against them in any way.

The T-Mac & Yao Ming Rockets were consistently underachieving due to injury--I don't think you can use that to cast shade on either player's talent and ability.

Of course you can.  The reality is that to achieve greatness in the sports world, you have to be able to remain relatively injury free.  Otherwise, there's just way too many "woulda, shoulda, couldas."

So, yes, getting injured, and not being able to produce at your best, counts against you as an athlete.

I'm glad that you think less of KG for having a serious knee issue after 14 years of near injury free professional basketball and less of Rondo for being pulled to the floor and dislocating his elbow.

Injuries happen, and staying healthy is something that matters for player value. But if you're going to say "scoreboard" and ignore the context of what happened, what's the point? Every team sucks then, except the Heat I guess.

Blake Griffin had a severe ankle sprain during the playoffs. Does that mean in future years we should discount the Clippers as potential contenders?

I think very highly of both Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo, but if they hadn't both, respectively, gotten hurt in 2009 and 2011, we might all be thinking even more highly of them right now based on their accomplishments.