NBA Awards Watch: Kevin Durant Injury Changes MVP Race

February ended with one of the candidates for the NBA MVP getting knocked out of the race as the NBA awards watch hits the home stretch.

The races for NBA awards sometimes aren’t even determined by the players involved in those races. To wit, what happened to Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant Tuesday night.

Durant, considered a top candidate for MVP honors this season, had his campaign for that award effectively torpedoed when he was submarined by teammate Zaza Pachulia early in the first quarter of Golden State’s loss to the Washington Wizards.

Durant isn’t the only player out of the running for hardware–at least in my estimation–due to injury.

Los Angeles Clippers point guard Chris Paul was only a fringe candidate for both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, but his broken hand has cut the fringe off the discussion.

Also See: 25 Greatest Rookie Seasons Of All-Time

While many are still touting Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid as the Rookie of the Year frontrunner, it is unlikely he returns to the court this season because of a knee injury. Some voters will talk themselves into selecting Embiid–who undeniably was outstanding when he played.

But 31 games? Embiid was on a strict minutes restriction when he was active and was being held out of back-to-backs because of his past injury history. Try as I might, I just can’t talk myself into a Rookie of Less Than 38 Percent of the Year.

There have been rookies win it with injury-shortened seasons before. Brandon Roy played only 57 games in winning the award in 2006-07 and Patrick Ewing logged only 50 games in 1985-86. But they at least got half a season in.

As the calendar rolls over to March, there’s about a third of the regular season remaining. Teams are jockeying for playoff positions and postseason berths and the NBA awards battles will heat up down the stretch.

And away we go.