The NBA says the rate of players needing to miss games because of injuries is down from last season and within the normal range for what the league has seen over the last five seasons. League data shows the player injury rate this season is down about 6%. That’s hardly abnormal even after several marquee players— including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, James Harden and most recently Jamal Murray — have dealt with injuries in recent weeks. NBA teams are playing 3.6 games per week, up 5% from last year. This year’s schedule compressed 72 games into 146 days, as opposed to the usual 82 games into 177 days.
