Hoops

Do the Raptors still win the championship with Jonas Valanci

In fact, Perkins got injured in Game 6, only playing 6 minutes in that game- Lakers won games 6 and 7.

Just shows, injuries happen every year.

Most champions have a bit of luck.

So many interesting hypotheticals

The Warriors made 5 trips to the Finals and all of them, you could argue, were strongly influenced by injuries:

- 2015 Kyrie missed most of the finals, Kevin Love missed the entire finals. Warriors win 4-2.

- 2016 Bogut misses the last 3 games, allowing Kyrie and Lebron to attack the hoop in a way they werent able to with rim protector Bogut there earlier in the series. Cavs come from 3-1 and win.

- 2017 Spurs beat Warriors 2-1 in regular season- both wins by over 20 points. Fast forward to Western conference finals, Spurs up 20 at the half of Game 1. Kawhi goes down in the 3rd quarter. Warriors come back to win Game 1 and the series.

- 2018 WCF- Rockets up 3-2. Chris Paul misses games 6 and 7- Warriors win Game 7 in Houston.

- 2019 Durant, Klay, Cousins all variously impacted by injuries.

This is the norm- it's an 82 game season, 2 months of playoffs. Injuries happen, there's a million hypotheticals.

In 2010 Boston enforcer Kendrick Perkins missed game 7. The Lakers bullied Boston in the decider, grabbing 23 O boards, putting up 83 field goal attempts.

Does Kobe win his 5th title if Perkins had played? Probably not.

But that's just another playoffs hypothetical, isn't it!

They won the Championship fair and square.

Injuries are part of the game.

Warriors won their first one against a Cavaliers sans Kyrie and Love.

And when the Warriors finally faced a full strength Cavaliers, they lost from 3-1 up.

Will never know, would they win it if Klay and Durant don't get injured?

Valanciunas***

ADELAIDE Lightning are a veteran away from retaining the core of its WNBL team after their rookie, Stephanie Talbot, signed to stay with the club in 2013-14.

Talbot, 18, won the Betty Watson Rookie of the Year award last season and was actively pursued by Dandenong Rangers.

But the Kadina-born guard/forward, who made a sensation with her acceptance speech at the awards night in reference to how much she had learned from her experienced teammates, decided to stay in Peter Buckle's Lightning rotation.

With the exception of dual-league MVP Suzy Batkovic, who headed to Townsville Fire as a free agent, Adelaide now has retained the nucleus of the team that has contested finals for the past two seasons.

Olympians Laura Hodges, Jenni Screen and Angela Marino all return, as will livewire guard Amy Lewis, burgeoning centre Nadeen Payne and rookie playmaker Lauren Mansfield.