Do you have questions about cramping after Matthew Dellavedova was stricken following Game 3 of the NBA Finals? Well, we've got answers.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the Wednesday morning hours following a crucial Game 3 victory in the NBA Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers point guard -- and burgeoning local cult hero -- Matthew Dellavedova was taken to the hospital after coming down with severe cramping.
Dellavedova's treatment is easily the highest-profile example of cramping in the NBA this year.
He assumes the title from his teammate, LeBron James, who as a member of the Miami Heat famously was stricken by leg cramps during Game 1 of last year's championship series.
You may have questions about sports cramping, or -- as it's known in medical circles -- exercise-associated muscle cramps.
Well, we've got answers.
Q. What is a muscle cramp?
A. Put simply, a muscle cramp is when a muscle contracts involuntarily and suddenly. They can last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes or longer.
Athletes are especially prone to cramping. As they can attest, cramps are painful and can make physical activity difficult, or in severe cases, impossible.
Q. What causes sports cramping?
Dr. Amanda Weiss-Kelly, University Hospitals
A. In short, no one knows definitively, according to Dr. Amanda Weiss-Kelly, division chief of the pediatric sports medicine department at Cleveland's UH Case Medical Center.
"If you want to watch people in sports medicine stand on chairs and yell at each other about the causes of something, it's sports cramping," she said.
That being said, it's generally believed that three main factors come into play: dehydration, inadequate salt intake (or salt loss through sweating) and muscle fatigue.
"Some of them may contribute, but there's no absolutely proven thing that causes it. And I think that all three of those factors, they probably all contribute," Weiss-Kelly said.
All three are risk factors for Dellavedova and other professional athletes who may not have had time to rest or hydrate properly during and between games.
A different variety of cramping is heat cramping, which James likely dealt with during last year's finals after the air-conditioning failed in San Antonio's AT&T Arena.
Q. How do you treat cramping?
A. Dellavedova was taken to the Cleveland Clinic for treatment after he received an IV in the locker room.
Weiss-Kelly said an IV, which contains both water and sodium, is a typical treatment for sports cramping, as are certain types of medication.
Less drastic treatments include stretching, taking salt tablets, which aren't as in vogue as they used to be, or drinking sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. And of course, there's rest.
Q. Did Delly's coffee breaks make him cramp up?
A. Some have wondered if Dellavedova's routine of drinking a cup of coffee before games could have played a role. After all, caffeine is believed to be a diuretic, which means it causes water loss through urination (although this has been questioned.)
It also was reported that he drank a second cup of coffee during halftime:
Weiss-Kelly said there's some question if caffeine makes the body's nerves more irritable and thus more susceptible to cramping.
But, she said: "If he's been doing that for years, it would contribute less than if he is not a typical coffee drinker and he loaded up. In his case, I would guess it's because he works so hard and lost a lot of fluid and a lot of salts, and had a lot of muscle fatigue as a result."
Q. What's the recovery time for severe cramping?
A. Weiss-Kelly said that from her experience working at UCLA during a sports medicine fellowship there, athletes usually bounce back quickly from cramps.
"Certainly when your muscles are cramping down like that, you can get some fatigue," she said. "But usually when we would treat somebody like this, they'd be back at practice the next day. They may not be perfect, and they may not be full go. But short of there being some sort of muscle injury as a result of the cramping, I don't see why he wouldn't be ready to play the next game."
(Dellavedova is out of the hospital, and will play on Thursday, according to Northeast Ohio Media Group's Chris Haynes.)
On the other hand, someone who comes down with cramping once can be susceptible to repeat occurrences because of the associated muscle fatigue.
Q. What can Delly -- and you -- do to prevent cramping?
A. Increase salt intake, avoid alcohol, and remain properly hydrated and rested, according to Weiss-Kelly.
But that might be easier said than done for Dellavedova, who has played 42 and 39 minutes in Games 2 and 3, respectively. Game 2 in Oakland, California didn't end until after 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, and then he and other players had to deal with media availability and other post-game activities.
On Monday morning, the team took a cross-country flight from California to Cleveland, landing at 6 a.m. before practicing at noon, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal.
"It's really hard for these guys to stay on top of hydration, because they don't have as much time because these games are over really late at night," Weiss-Kelly said. "If they don't hydrate after the game, they can start the day dehydrated, and get more dehydrated as the day goes on."
