NBA Playoffs: Injuries already a big concern for some teams

Tyler Herro is out for a while. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant are hurting.

And road teams are off to a pretty strong start in the NBA playoffs.

Injuries are happening, and in four of the eight opening-round series, home-court advantage already is gone. Miami lost Herro to a broken hand in its Game 1 win at Milwaukee, a game in which Antetokounmpo left early with a bruised back. And Memphis dropped Game 1 at home to the Los Angeles Lakers, a bad day that got worse when Morant had to leave early with a hand injury.

The Los Angeles Clippers, playing without the injured Paul George, got a Game 1 road win as well — going into Phoenix and grabbing the series lead while giving the Suns their first loss in nine games with Kevin Durant in uniform. Another road win came Saturday, when New York went into Cleveland and stole the opener.

The home winners in Game 1: Philadelphia,Boston,Sacramento and Denver.

WHAT'S NEXT?

After four games Saturday and four more Sunday, the schedule gets a bit more scattered now.

Brooklyn goes to Philadelphia and Golden State visits Sacramento for Game 2s on Monday.

On Tuesday, it's Atlanta at Boston, New York at Cleveland and the Clippers back at Phoenix.

And Game 2s in the Los Angeles Lakers-Memphis, Miami-Milwaukee and Minnesota-Denver series aren't until Wednesday.

23 AND HE

LeBron James — the NBA's all-time scoring leader — has another record. He's the first player in NBA history to face 23 different franchises in the postseason.

Memphis is the newest entry on that list. That leaves only Cleveland, the Lakers, the Clippers, Minnesota, New Orleans, Sacramento and Utah as the franchises that James hasn't played yet in the playoffs.

His teams have never lost a playoff game to Atlanta, going 12-0. The opponent that he has faced (and defeated) most is Boston, with James' teams going 25-16 in those games.

Only five franchises have a winning record when facing James' teams in the playoffs: Dallas, Orlando and Phoenix are all 4-2, Golden State is 15-7 and San Antonio is 11-5.

WHO WINS THE AWARDS?

We start finding out those answers on Monday, the first of four days of award-handing-out from the league office this week.

— Monday: Defensive player of the year gets awarded, with the finalists being Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr., Milwaukee's Brook Lopez and Cleveland's Evan Mobley.

— Tuesday: The inaugural winner of the new Clutch Player award — Miami's Jimmy Butler, Chicago's DeMar DeRozan or Sacramento's De'Aaron Fox — will be made known.

— Wednesday: Coach of the Year — Sacramento's Mike Brown is the big favorite, with Oklahoma City's Mark Daigneault and Boston's Joe Mazzulla the other finalists — will be awarded.

— Thursday: Sixth Man of the Year will be revealed, with Boston's Malcolm Brogdon, Milwaukee's Bobby Portis Jr. and New York's Immanuel Quickley the finalists.

NOT MANY RALLIES

Double-digit comebacks weren't exactly a surprise in the regular season. More than 28% of games played in the regular season — 347 out of 1,230, to be exact — saw a team coming from at least 10 points down to win.

That didn't happen on the opening playoff weekend. Sacramento had the big comeback of the eight Game 1s, erasing what was a 10-point deficit against Golden State.

The rest of the double-digit-leaders went on to win. Denver led Minnesota by 32, Boston led Atlanta by 32, Philadelphia led Brooklyn by 25, the Clippers led Phoenix by 16, the Lakers led the Grizzlies by 16, Miami led Milwaukee by 15 and New York's biggest lead in Cleveland was 12.

QUOTABLE

"At this position, humbly speaking, nobody's a better rebounder than me.'' — Clippers point guard Russell Westbrook, who even on a 3-for-19 shooting night had a huge impact on the win over Phoenix. Westbrook had nine points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, three blocks and two steals. It was only the 10th time in the last 30 years that someone finished a playoff game with all those numbers.