The Milwaukee Bucks continued to jostle for optimal playoff seeding on Saturday night as they grabbed a win against the Phoenix Suns. And while they are only a half-game out of the fifth-seed in the East, their playoff expectations might already be hopeless before the postseason even begins.

Late in the first half of Saturday night’s game, Andrew Bogut broke out on a fast break for an impressive two-handed dunk. While going up for the dunk, Amar’e Stoudemire  trailed immediately behind Bogut. Stoudemire grazed him enough to cause Bogut to fall from the rim in an off-balanced fashion. As Bogut landed, he braced himself with his right arm and had clearly sustained a dislocated elbow. We would come to find out that the injury was more severe than had originally been expected, as Bogut also broke his hand and sprained his wrist in the fall. Now Bogut is out indefinitely, and the possibility for a playoff return is in serious doubt.

This is a crushing blow for the Bucks, who have been one of the most surprising success stories this season. Even after losing their franchise player, Michael Redd, early in the season, the Bucks have rallied together with scrappy defensive play and solid teamwork to put together their best season in recent memory. Bogut has been having one of the best seasons of his young career, with career-highs in points (15.9 ppg) and blocks (2.5 bpg). While the Bucks have had fantastic contributions from players like John Salmons, Carlos Delfino and rookie Brandon Jennings, Bogut has been the consistent force that Milwaukee has been able to rely on game-in and game-out.

In his absence, the Bucks will have to rely heavily on Kurt Thomas to hold down the center position. While Thomas is a capable defender and rebounder, and he has a solid mid-range shot, he is far from the same high-impact player that Bogut is. Bogut had the ability to draw double-teams in the post and create space for Milwaukee’s outside shooters. Thomas won’t be able to draw the attention of opposing defenses in the same way. With Bogut, none of the top seeds in the East really wanted to face Milwaukee – who had developed a competitive swagger as the season developed. Without Bogut, beating the Bucks in a seven-game series is expected if not a given.

The Bucks will still have to fight for position in the East, and the next three games will be crucial. Coming up this week they have the Bulls, Nets and 76ers. These are must-have wins for them if they want to keep a hold of their six-seed, especially because the Bucks close out the season with two games against the Celtics and one against the Hawks. While I don’t expect the Bucks to make any noise in the playoffs this year, just making it to the playoffs represents a significant step forward for Milwaukee. This year we’ve seen their confidence grow to the point where they expect to win every time they step on the floor. That kind of winning mindset should pay big dividends for them next year when the whole group is back at full strength.

Before the season started, the Portland Trail Blazers were running out of room in their bandwagon. Hanging their hats on young rising talent and depth at every position, the Blazers set a goal to win the Northwest Division and quietly plotted a Western Conference takeover. But these days, the bandwagon is looking more and more like an ambulance.

Add (the now-starting center) Joel Przybilla to the list of Blazers casualties this year. In the first quarter of tonight’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, Przybilla came down awkwardly on a defensive possession and came crumbling down to the floor gripping his right knee. His diagnosis would later be revealed to be a ruptured patella tendon, accompanied by a patella dislocation. Although the Blazers haven’t provided a timetable for Przybilla’s return, this injury was worse than that of Greg Oden’s – who is done for the season. I’ll let you do the math.

Przybilla joins Oden, Travis Outlaw, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Fernandez and Patty Mills on the Blazers’ injured list.

The injury leaves the Blazers incredibly thin in the frontcourt, with no true center on the roster. If tonight’s game is any indication, the Blazers will be playing a more up-tempo style of play with a small-ball lineup. The Blazers will rely on the trio of LaMarcus Aldridge, Juwan Howard and recently re-instated rookie Jeff Pendergraph to man the center position.

Aldridge has frequently been criticized for his lack of intensity in the paint, especially in the defense and rebounding departments. Aldridge will have to turn his focus to prowling the paint and crashing the boards on defense, and work on establishing more of an inside presence on offense instead of floating around outside of the paint and lofting up mid-range jumpers. It’s a challenge that Aldridge has to meet and surpass if the Blazers hope to be successful on a regular basis.

As we’ve said before, even with the injuries, at least the Blazers still have all-star level players like Brandon Roy and Aldridge to rely on. As long as they remain healthy, the Blazers will at least be competitive. But the Blazers certainly have had to readjust their expectations for what is possible this season. While they certainly aren’t out and done,  they will be lucky to find themselves squeak into the playoffs with the severity and quantity of injuries they’ve endured this year.

Click here for more thoughts on the Joel Przybilla injury from Oregon Sports Live’s Andrew Theen

The Houston Rockets’ 116-108 overtime victory over the Dallas Mavericks last night was overshadowed by a brutal collision between Dirk Nowitzki and Carl Landry early in the second quarter. Nowitzki cut through the lane after being on the receiving end of a loose pick-and-roll, and as he rose up to the basket his elbow connected with Landry’s mouth.  The collision took both players out for the remainder of the game. The video below is not for the squeamish.

Landry, straight faced and mouth closed, went straight off the court to the team doctor, spit teeth into his towel and was immediately taken to the emergency room. Landry suffered five cracked or knocked-out teeth, and adding insult-to-injury (literally in this case) Landry was called for a foul on the play.

Nowitzki also got more than just a scratch on the elbow. He suffered a deep cut that required three stitches to close. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, “the Maverick’s found pieces of two teeth embedded in Nowitzki’s elbow and had to spend 30 minutes cleaning the cut before administering X-rays, which were found to be negative.” Nowitzki fought through the pain though and shot the ensuing free-throws from Landry’s unfortunate foul. He made one of two…left-handed.

Let’s hope we don’t see any more injuries on this level of disgusting any more this season.

The Houston Rockets were a bit undermanned tonight against the Detroit Pistons, as starting small-forward Trevor Ariza wouldn’t be available because of a one-game suspension for swinging an elbow at Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan in the Rockets’ previous game. While the immediate beneficiary of Ariza’s absence was Chase Budinger, who got the start and certainly made the most of it (16 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists), the ripple effect didn’t stop there. Rick Adelman called upon Tracy McGrady to suit up for the game, the first time he’s done so in the past 10 months. McGrady saw just under eight minutes tonight, and scored just three points – which he cashed in from a pull-up shot from the top of the arc.

“It’s been so long since I’ve played, it was just a great feeling to be back on the court,” McGrady said. “Just to get up and down the court with these guys and to be back out there competing is what I missed. To have that back, finally, and feel good and have fun doing it, there’s nothing better.”

McGrady has been notorious for his nagging injuries and health issues over the past several years, so it will be interested to see if his health can withstand the rigors of NBA play after undergoing micro-fracture surgery last season. McGrady has been training with Tim Grover to get himself back into playing shape. Grover is most well-known as Michael Jordan’s trainer, but he’s also the man who brought Gilbert Arenas back from the dead and playing at a high level this year. It’s rare that a player of McGrady’s talent and abilities comes around, and it’s a shame to see those talents go to waste due to injuries.

If he can work himself back to any semblance of his former self, he’ll be a welcome addition to the Rockets. I guess that goes without saying…he is poised to be an All-Star after all. That being said, the Rockets have been playing surprisingly well without McGrady, jetting out to a 14-10 record. The Rockets will likely bring McGrady back slowly and increase his minutes gradually as his health proves to be up to par. The question remains, will McGrady come back in the form of a role-player off of the bench, or will he be elevate his game to the point where he has the ability to take over like he used to?

How much of an impact do you think McGrady will have this season?

Injuries are certainly a major factor that plays into the success (or lack thereof) for teams across the league. While the season is roughly only 1/4 through, several teams are (or have) battling through injuries for some of their key players. Here’s an assessment of some of the most notable injuries so far this season, and how their team has been able to cope with their absence.

Danny Granger – It’s always hard to lose your leading scorer, especially when talking about someone as prolific as Granger. Granger tore his right plantar fascia (and any hope for salvaging the Pacers’ season) in Saturday’s loss to the Clippers and will be out of commission for at least a month. The Pacers will have to rely much more heavily on Mike Dunleavy (who is just coming off an injury himself) and the surprise scorer of the season: Dahntay Jones. Pacers fans have to be rather disappointed with the limited offensive output from both Troy Murphy and T.J. Ford, both of whom have seen drops of over 4 points per game on their scoring average. All is not well in Indiana, as they have lost six straight and ten of their last 11 games. Let’s find a way to blame this on Josh McRoberts and his unkempt hair that screams “Really, I’m not a basketball player…trust me.”

Greg Oden – What would a discussion about injuries be without mentioning Greg Oden? Oden had a season ending fracture of his left patella during Sunday’s game against the Rockets. Bolstering Oden’s prolific injury lore even further was that the fracture came without any impact or out-of-the-ordinary motions – just a fracture after planting and jumping. Oden joins fellow Blazers Nicolas Batum, Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw, Jeff Pendergraph, Patty Mills and even coach Nate McMillan on the injured list. Fortunately for Portland, they still have their two best players in Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, but they will have to develop a comfort level moving forward with their current roster. Even Juwan Howard is getting some notable run.

Michael Redd – Redd has certainly seen his fair share of injuries over the past few years. It’s no wonder that people in fantasy drafts all over the world were avoiding him like the plague mixed with arsenic. Redd again finds himself nowhere near the hardwood, as his early season strained patella tendon has kept him out of all but five games.  Apparently he asked to be shut down again until his knee is fully healed, but the Bucks (surprisingly) are not in as much of a rush to get him back as one might have expected. They are easily the most overachieving team of this young season, starting out with a 10-11 record behind the brilliant play of rookie Brandon Jennings and the surprise production from players like Ersan Ilyasova. Still, their win tonight was their first in the past five games – so they’ll take any help they can get.

Devin Harris - In the midst of New Jersey’s “miracle run” to the worst start of any team in NBA history was a slew of injuries, but none more important than that of Harris – who missed 10 games during that stretch due to a groin strain. It’s hard to lose your primary playmaker, creator, distributor, scorer, etc…especially when you have a roster as thin as the Nets. Now, even if Harris was healthy that whole time, the Nets still would be bottom feeders in the league, but I don’t think there is any way they would have set that record – he has just too much big-game potential. While the Nets are currently sitting at a painful 2-20 record, the worst seems to be over as they have won two of their last five games. That’s two more than the entire month of October.

Louis Williams – The fractured jaw of Louis Williams might have been the most exciting injury in the history of Philadelphia sports. While no fan likes to see their starting point guard (who isn’t really a point guard) get injured and leave their team with no other real viable replacements at that position. But, this was an exception as it lead to the return of the most popular athlete the city has seen in this modern era in Allen Iverson. Iverson makes the 76ers an intriguing team with a starting lineup that is scary on paper, but he has been far from the “Answer” thus far. The 76ers have lost both games since Iverson’s return, and continue their unexpected skid of 11 straight losses. The good news is, when Williams returns he can return to his usual role as a sparkplug off the bench relied on more as a combo guard than the team’s floor general.

Honorable Mentions: Andris Biedrins, Chris Paul, Tyrus Thomas, Mike Miller