Health has been the biggest threat to the Nets’ Big 3 all season. And they were snakebitten again Saturday, when star James Harden lasted less than a minute into Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals before hobbling off the court with another hamstring injury.
“I didn’t realize what had happened until he had started walking off the court. But we supposed to run a play and he wasn’t in his spot and I looked at him, he was grimacing,” Kevin Durant said. “That [crap] just sucks. It sucks.
“It sucks because I want him to be out there. I know how much he cares. I know how much he wants to be in this moment. It sucks. Wishing him a speedy recovery. Keep him involved as much as possible. It’s just a bad break.”
Harden hurt his right hamstring on his very first drive of the game against the Bucks, and he didn’t return in the Nets’ 115-107 win. It’s the same hamstring that cost him 18 straight games earlier this season.
The Nets’ title hopes may rest on when Harden, their floor general and increasingly their locker-room leader, is able to return. They offered no results from an MRI exam on Harden’s injury.
The Nets’ James Harden (l.) reinjured his hamstring in the opening minute of Game 1 against the Bucks Corey Sipkin“I don’t [know]. I haven’t heard yet,” said coach Steve Nash, who left Harden’s status for Game 2 on Monday up in the air.
“I’m heartbroken for him. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if he’s playing next game, if he’s out, I have no idea. But I’m heart-broken for him that he had to miss [Game 1]. I mean, this guy was so ready and excited to play. You know the preparation he puts in, you know how much he cares about the game, how much he cares about his team. So you never want to see that when someone gives everything they have towards this.”
Just seconds into the game, after kicking the ball out to Joe Harris in the corner, Harden immediately clutched at his right leg in clear discomfort. He didn’t even run to the locker room, but walked slowly as the air was sucked out of the worried sellout crowd of 15,750 at Barclays Center.
Nash quickly called timeout 43 seconds into the contest and summoned guard Bruce Brown off the bench. Little-used Mike James — who hadn’t played more than a minute since Game 2 of the first-round series against the Celtics — logged 30 minutes and scored 12 points.
Injuries and health have been the Nets’ Achilles’ heel, and could derail their goal of a championship run.
“I mean it’s never easy to lose anybody, especially this time of the year, where we just want to have fun playing basketball and playing the right way and competing at a high level,” Kyrie Irving said. “We’re obviously out there for bigger reasons, so when you see the game snatched away so early from one of our brothers, we feel for him, and we just had to make a quick adjustment and adjust from there.
“That’s the best thing we can do. We just came in the huddle, made sure that everybody on the bench knew kind of the situation we were in, and like I said we just played out from there. It went our way tonight, but obviously we’re going to feel his loss no matter what.”
Many viewed the Nets-Bucks clash as befitting an NBA Finals and a chance for Harden to reverse the narrative of his playoff failures. After his teams have been eliminated six times by the eventual NBA champion, and twice more by teams that reached the Finals, this has been seen as Harden’s best shot at a ring.
Harden’s right hamstring caused him trouble during the regular season. After missing two games with tightness in his right hamstring, he lasted just 4:22 in an April 5 win over the Knicks before he subbed himself out because of the same hamstring. He subsequently missed a career-high 18 consecutive games. It’s unclear how many he’ll miss now.
“I’m not even thinking like that. I’m taking it a day at a time, one second at a time, get ready for practice [Sunday],” Durant said. “We’re not really thinking that far. We’re just trying to take it a game at a time. We’ll see what happens.”
