Acutely increased workload is correlated with significant injuries among national basketball association players

Background Particularly at the level of professional athletics, injury prevention is of critical importance. We hypothesized that elevated in-game statistics over a period of 3-10 games places increased cumulative stress on players’ joints and thus predisposes players to injury. Methods Utilizing a comprehensive database of National Basketball Association (NBA) player statistics, we identified 34 NBA players who suffered significant in-game injuries during the 2016-2019 seasons, leading them to miss at least ten consecutive games. We then assessed several potential markers of increased player workload during the cumulative one, three, five, and ten games directly preceding the injuries and compared them to season averages for each player. Results Increased minutes played per game over the cumulative three (4.9% increase, p = 0.04), five (5.8% increase, p = 0.004), and ten (4.0% increase, p = 0.02) games directly preceding injury were closely related to increased injury occurrence. In-game activity level as measured by statistics such as points scored and rebounds per game did not relate to injury occurrence. Conclusion In addition to injury mitigation practices currently used by NBA teams, maintaining players’ minutes played per game constant over time may be an additional effective strategy to be used by coaches and general managers in the future.