Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On this week’s show (March 29, 2018), Neil, Chris and Kyle talk about the news that Kyrie Irving recently had knee surgery and won’t be back for three to six weeks. How will the surgery affect the Boston Celtics’ playoff seeding? How would losing Kyrie for the first round of the playoffs affect the team?
Next, Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors is expected to miss the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs because of his own knee injury. The crew breaks down what that means for the Warriors and what their chances of winning the NBA title are.
Plus, a significant digit on an oddly important member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Here are links to what the podcast discussed this week:
- Keep an eye on FiveThirtyEight’s 2017-18 NBA predictions, updated after every game.
- The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor took a look at how Irving’s injury may affect the Celtics.
- Chris wrote about how the Warriors should adjust their offense without Curry.
- Significant Digit: .700, the winning percentage of the Cavaliers when Jose Calderon is in the starting line-up.