Cuts on finger from basketball? PLEASE HELP! 10 pts?

Is the skin on your hand pretty dry? If your skin has dried out, especially common in winter months due to low humidity, it can split open pretty easily and look like a cut. The skin/tissue underneath looks red because it's full of capillaries (very small blood vessels that deliver oxygen to your cells). Putting alcohol on already dry skin is a terrible idea. Simply wash the wound with soap and warm water, pat it dry with a clean towel (or a fresh paper towel if you're really worried about infection), put some sort of anti-bacterial cream/ointment on it, and cover it with a bandage. Also find a good lotion to keep your hands from drying out. Keep it clean and the risk of infection is very low. If you're practicing basketball, be sure to wash the wound very well after practice then reapply the medicine and bandage. The bacteria in sweat can cause a small wound to become slightly inflamed.

Your fingernail can't bleed. That injury may have pressed the nail into the surrounding soft tissue, causing that to bleed. Treat it the same as your other wound, and it will be fine.

Finally, you seem to be way too worried about in infection from these injuries. Unless you have some sort of serious medical condition, you have nothing to really worry about from these minor skin breaks. If you don't keep them clean and covered, they could become infected, but it will be so minor it won't matter. The most likely issue you would have from such an infection is some swelling and minor discomfort. Your body will clear up the infection easily, and heal the injury, too.