Is the NBA’s Injury Crisis About Money? Why 82 Games Won’t Change | Run It Back! NBA Week in Review Week 2

Week two of the 2026-27 NBA season is over, which means it's time to run it back. This is Run It Back NBA Week in Review. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thePeachBasket.net, and this is the show where we recap the week that was in the NBA by sharing the only objective NBA power rankings, the stats standouts, that's the best to do it by average in the week that was, and we take a look at viral news in the NBA in a segment we call Full Court Press. Finally, we highlight the marquee matchup for the week to come. We start with the only objective overall top 10 NBA power rankings anywhere. You can read more about how we get to these rankings and see the entire list at thePeachBasket.net. Let's take a look at the top 10 at the conclusion of week number two. Now, like normal, the start of every NBA season, there's a lot of movement at the start. Probably we'll see that through the next few weeks. So keeping that in mind, the top 10 is a lot different than it was last week. We start with Minnesota. They took a tumble after two and three week, dropping seven spots from number three. They are the number 10 team in week number two, Minnesota Timberwolves. The Oklahoma City Thunder, unfortunately, also had a four and two week. I say unfortunately, because they just had a lot of injuries. I'm gonna talk a little bit about injuries later in, in the show, but they took a tumble like I said, dropping eight spots to take on the number nine spot after week number two Cleveland Cavaliers had a good week, three and one. That moved them up six spots. They are number eight. San Antonio Spurs also seem to have been figuring things out. They had a perfect three and oh week and move up 10 spots. They are number seven. Boston Celtics, also perfect three and oh, move up two spots from number eight to number six. The Memphis Grizzlies somehow continue to win. They were four and oh in week number two but they don't have a lot of quality wins yet, so they're not getting the points they need like the teams above them. That four and oh week only moved them up one spot. They are the number five team. The Houston Rockets are three and one, playing great basketball, moved up one spot from five to four. The Dallas Mavericks, who just beat the Houston Rockets, handing them that only loss, they were three and oh in week number two, and they moved up nine spots to take on s- the number three position after week number two. Philadelphia 76ers were three and one, moving up two spots from four to two, and the Detroit Pistons were number two in week number one. They are now the number one team after a really good three and one week in week number two. That's the objective top 10 for week number two. If you wanna see where all 30 teams land this week, please visit thePeachBasket.net. Now let's shift our focus to the players. These are the best to do it by average in week number two of the 2026-27 NBA season. These are the best by average in shooting, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals Points and game score. Let's start with points. Luka Dončić, probably motivated by that little Yaxel back and forth in week number one, erupted on the association in week number two, averaging 43.3 points over his three games played to lead everybody. Luka was also the top three-point field goal maker, averaging 6.7 in over his three games played. And Victor Wembanyama was the top field goal maker, averaging 15 over his three games played. The top rebounder was Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Miami Heat. He pulled down 16.7 rebounds to lead everyone. Moussa Diabate was the top offensive rebounder averaging 6.5 over his four games played. And Giannis pulled down the most defensive rebounds at 11.7, again, over his three games played. The top assist guy is a guy, again, who's just changing what it means to be an NBA center and h- has been doing it for a few years. Nikola Jokić led everyone, 10.3 assists over his three games played. Victor Wembanyama sent back more shots than anybody, 4.3 on average over his three games played. And Zion Williamson had 3.7 steals on average over his three games played to lead the association. And the top overall gain, the top game score in week two goes to Luka Dončić at a very respectable 35.2. Now, looking ahead to week number three, there are two really good matchups in each conference. In the West, the Dall- the Dallas Mavericks, we just mentioned them, coming off a win against the Houston Rockets, take on the other Texas team as they travel to San Antonio to take on the figured-it-out San Antonio Spurs. And over in the East this week's number one team the Detroit Pistons host the Philadelphia 76ers in what should be a really good game in the East. Now, we're gonna end this segment with what we call Full Court Press, and unfortunately, if you do a search for NBA today, you're gonna see a lot of injuries popping up. We wanna talk about that. But before we do, a quick shout-out to the Golden State Valkyries. They beat the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA's first game seven, and in doing so, made history by becoming the fastest expansion franchise in major North American professional sports history to win a championship, capturing the title in just two seasons. That's incredible. Congratulations to the WNBA champion Valkyries. So now, that's good basketball news, right? But we gotta shift to bad/sad basketball news. As of the end of October, there are 12 key players who are day-to-day or worse including Jalen Williams, Anthony Edwards, Paolo Banchero, Kawhi Leonard and others, several others. Is it me, or does it seem like this is happening more and more? I made a point a while back on the Shot Clock pod with Steve Purciello that if we could wave a magic wand and have every NBA team healthy for the duration of the season, dating all the way back retroactively to the first NBA season in 1946, my guess is that 50% or more of the champions would be different. What I'm saying is it's not always the best team that wins and lifts the Larry O'Brien, but the healthiest team. And there's a, th- there's something about that's not fair. I get it. I understand why it happens, but it's just not fair. Now, of course, there's nothing we can do about injuries, though, or is there? Now, eliminating injuries is not an option. They're always gonna happen. The only time in my life I've ever broken a bone was playing basketball, going up for a rebound, and I broke a bone in my foot. It happens. But reducing injuries seems viable. Others have floated the ideas or ideas like reducing or eliminating back-to-backs and shortening the season. Both of these would lower the wear and tear on players' bodies. I think that's undeniable But there's some deniability there. While Commissioner Silver has been open to less games, saying there's nothing magical about 82 games, nothing has changed other than the reduction of back-to-back games, but not an elimination of them. So why? W- when we see these injuries, we know it's happening, it seems logical. Play less games, have less injuries. Why hasn't anything changed? Two things. Number one, the league says injury data does not support cutting games. Now, one analysis in a 2017 Journal of Medicine and s-- pardon me, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport entitled Game Injuries in Relation to Game Schedules in the National Basketball Association, cited a Utah study finding back-to-back road games produced 3.5 times more in-game injuries than home games. Outside experts point to other drivers too, such as a faster pace of play, early youth specialization. A 2018 study found single sport high school athletes who became first round picks were more likely to suffer major NBA injuries 'cause they've been playing so much basketball, the wear and tear is there. Yet despite all that data, in 2025, Adam Silver said, "People used to claim fewer games would mean fewer injuries, and there's absolutely no data," quote, unquote, "to back that up." Now, personally, I have a hard time trusting the NBA to provide good data on something that directly impacts them. Which leads me to reason number one that we haven't seen any movement even as injuries pile up. You know what it is. It's money. Every game sold Every game not played is lost ticket money, lost concession money, sponsorship money, local TV revenue. The national TV deal that started last season, or deals, are built around inventory, roughly 76 billion over 11 years. Analysts have long noted that fewer games would mean less revenue, which is a hard sell to owners, and owners are the ones who decide the league's structure. Now, I get it. These NBA franchise owners paid a lot of money for their teams, and they wanna make some of that money back, if not all of it. But oddly, at least to me, it's not just the greedy owners that we can blame this on. The players themselves, the ones getting injured, have a role in this. Player salaries and the salary cap are tied to basketball-related income through the CBA. Fewer games means smaller paychecks. So the players' union has never pushed hard for a 66 or a 72-game season either. And again, I get it. You work hard to make it to the NBA and you want that bag. I get it. It's just unfortunate. Now, personally, I would be okay with less games if it meant higher quality games and more games with p- key players. But the chances of us ever seeing that when both the ownership groups and the Players Association don't really want it is slim to none, which means we'll continue to see the NBA mass unit full of really good players, and the Larry O'Brien raised by the healthiest team, not necessarily the best team. That's it. Week number two of the 2025-26 NBA season is in the books. Join us again next week after week number three, when we once again run it back.