The NBA publishes an official injury report before every game. If you're trying to make sense of player availability — whether for fantasy lineups, match predictions, or just understanding what's happening with a team — this report is the primary source of truth.

Here's how to read it.

How often the report updates

The injury report isn't a single document published once per day. It's updated multiple times in the hours leading up to tip-off — often every hour or less as game time approaches. Teams are required to submit updates on a schedule set by the league, but in practice some clubs don't file their final update until thirty minutes or less before the game starts.

This means a player listed as Questionable at midday may still be genuinely uncertain at 7pm. The closer to tip-off, the more reliable the status — the last published update before the game is almost always the most accurate one.

The four status labels

The report uses four designations, and they mean very specific things:

Out — The player will not play. No ambiguity. This is the most impactful status for predictions because it's confirmed.

Doubtful — The player is unlikely to play, roughly a 25% chance of participating. In practice, most Doubtful listings result in the player sitting out.

Questionable — The player has roughly a 50/50 chance of playing. This is the most common and most frustrating status because it leaves genuine uncertainty right up until tip-off. Teams sometimes upgrade Questionable players closer to game time.

Available — The player is listed but expected to play. This sometimes appears when a player is managing an ongoing condition but has been cleared to participate.

What the injury column tells you

Each listing includes the injury or reason for the status. A player listed Out with "rest" is very different from a player listed Out with "torn ACL." The former will be back next game; the latter won't be back this season.

Common reasons worth paying attention to:

- Rest / load management — Planned absence, often for veterans on back-to-backs

- Knee soreness / ankle soreness — Could upgrade by tip-off, worth monitoring

- Illness — Unpredictable, can linger or clear quickly

- Game-time decision — Explicitly uncertain, final status confirmed close to tip-off

Why timing matters

Star player availability is one of the strongest predictors of match outcome. A team missing their primary option — especially on short notice — shifts the expected margin considerably.

A status change in the final hour before tip-off carries far more weight than the same change at noon. Teams sometimes hold back final decisions deliberately. Knowing whether a Questionable listing is from the morning report or the final pre-game update changes how much certainty you should attach to it.

You can track current injury statuses for every team on our teams page, and player-specific details on each player page. We update statuses as soon as the report changes.