5 injuries with the greatest impact on the playoffs

Player injuries are the most unfortunate accidents in any sport. They deprive fans of watching the best possible contest, and they put a lot of psychological pressure (in addition to the physical pain) on the player during his injury layoff.

This season, the playoffs paint a much different picture than they could've due to a variety of injuries to star players - even franchise players in some cases. Certain teams are going to be a lot weaker due to these injuries, while their opponents become that much more likely to win a playoff series against the team with the injured player.

Here, we rank the top 5 most consequential player injuries by separating their team's ceiling with them to their ceiling without:

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#5 Stephen Curry

Curry has been a big miss for the Warriors in the past month

Duration of injury: Misses 1st round of playoffs

Expected impact: Warriors lose 2-3 games against the Pelicans/Wolves/Spurs, whereas they could have swept them with Curry present in all games

Stephen Curry was diagnosed with a Grade 2 sprain of his medial collateral ligament (MCL) in the 3rd quarter of a game against the Atlanta Hawks on 24th March. Doctors gave him a minimum of 3 weeks out from the game - the reevaluation is set for 14th of April.

In the best case scenario, Curry gets back before the first round of playoffs. But this best-case scenario is unlikely to play out, because Curry will need sufficient time to first go through no-contact shooting, then to 3-on-3 practices, then to no-contact 5-on-5s and finally he'll need to be cleared for full team practice.

So far, Curry has not joined the team, so he'll most likely miss at least 2 more weeks.

The Warriors are still a great NBA team without Curry, but it is quite possible for them to drop two or even three games against the likes of the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs or the New Orleans Pelicans. The easiest road for the Warriors in the first round would be against the Denver Nuggets, who hold the tiebreaker against the Pelicans.

#4 Joel Embiid

Embiid cheers the 76ers during their win over Cleveland last Friday

Duration of injury: Expected to miss the first week of playoffs

Expected Impact: The Philadelphia 76ers could lose 2-3 games of the first-round series

Joel Embiid sustained an orbital fracture in the face when he got hit by Markelle Fultz's shoulder on 31st March. He underwent surgery in the next week and is expected to be out for a duration of three weeks.

The Philadelphia 76ers have proved their ability to play without Embiid since then, most notably in a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. The playoffs, however, are a different challenge - the kind of challenge that the Sixers have not come up against yet.

Teams (the Bucks, Heat or Wizards will face the Sixers in the first round) will plan for Simmons' lack of a jumpshot and force him to either pass it on or take his chance with hook shots/floaters from 14 feet out.

This will force the rest of the Sixers to up their scoring game, and without adequate playoff experience, one can see them dropping a couple of games before Embiid comes back fully fit.

#3 Kawhi Leonard

Kawhi Leonard's return date is unclear

Duration of injury: Unclear

Expected Impact: Instead of possibly advancing to the Conference Finals, the Spurs will now most likely lose in the first round of playoffs against the likes of Trail Blazers, Warriors or Rockets

Kawhi Leonard woes have beset the San Antonio Spurs' entire season, and even thrown some shade at their current 47-34 record - an excellent record for a team without its best player on both ends of the floor.

While the Spurs are still a daunting prospect for any team in the playoffs with Coach Pop and LaMarcus Aldridge, they would have been a real threat to the dominance of the Warriors and the Rockets with a fully fit Kawhi Leonard.

The Spurs' last game of the season is against the Pelicans. If they win it, they can lock up the 5th seed and meet the Utah Jazz, who they have a greater possibility of beating than the top 3 seeds of the Conference.

At this point, however, the Jazz are a better playoff team because of their high-quality defensive schemes, and the Spurs would still not be favourites going up against them.

If, however, the Spurs lose to the Pelicans, they will finish either 7th or 8th (the Thunder should comfortably beat the Grizzlies in their final match of the regular season). In this case, they go up against the Warriors or the Rockets, who will both make short work of the Spurs without Leonard.

#2 DeMarcus Cousins

Cousins was lighting it up before going down to a season-ending Achilles injury

Duration of injury: Will not play this season

Expected Impact: The Pelicans will lose in the first round of the playoffs instead of possibly making the Conference Finals

There are no two ways about this: the New Orleans Pelicans would be the team nobody would want to face in the Western Conference playoffs if Cousins was fully fit and firing. A motivated DeMarcus Cousins was putting up a statline of 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game before going down with a season-ending Achilles injury in late January.

A twin towers combo of him and Anthony Davis were guaranteed to score a minimum of 50 points and gather 25 rebounds while suffocating teams in the paint in the playoffs.

Without Cousins in the lineup, the Pelicans have still sealed a playoff berth, but they are no longer the same kind of threat as they would be if all four of Rondo, Holliday, Cousins and Davis were playing at an elite level.

As NBA fans, we have been deprived of watching a team built for playoff basketball play at full strength this postseason.

#1 Kyrie Irving/Gordon Hayward

The two best players on the Celtics roster are out with injury

Duration of injuries: Ruled out for the rest of the season

Expected impact: The Boston Celtics go from Conference favourites to reach the NBA Finals to a first-round exit

The Boston Celtics, pre-season, were the predominant favourites to make the NBA Finals. They had put together a sturdy big 3 combo with an amazingly talented swingman in Gordon Hayward, an elite big man on both ends of the floor in Al Horford and the best ballhandler in the world in Kyrie Irving.

Not even the Cleveland Cavaliers, with the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Love and Isaiah Thomas at the time, were considered as good as the Celtics team at the time. 6 minutes into the regular season, however, the Celtics' dreaming of raising the 18th banner into their stands was dealt a body blow due to Hayward's freak injury.

While the Celtics have recovered quite credibly to post a great record of 54-26 - the best win total in Brad Stevens' Celtics reign - on the back of Irving, Horford and the best defense in the league, their title chances were then effectively ended with Irving's knee injury in March, which has now ruled him out for the rest of the season and the playoffs.

With Irving fit and firing in the playoffs, the Celtics would still have had a fighting chance of making the Finals in the Eastern Conference. With him out, they're probably headed for a first-round exit or at best a second-round exit.