The Nets were thorough and impressive in their 115-107 dismantling of the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1 of their second-round series on Saturday. That was the top headline, of course, but James Harden’s injury had to be mentioned in the same breath.
Harden headed to the locker room just 43 seconds into Game 1 after reaching for his right hamstring on Brooklyn’s first offensive possession. Not long after, he was ruled out for the remainder of the game.
The Nets are waiting on results of an MRI on Harden’s injured hamstring, which will shed light on an expected timeline for return.
In the meantime, Harden’s teammates were emotional in discussing his injury.
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Kyrie Irving Shares Emotions After Harden’s Injury
The Nets have been dealing with this type of thing all season. Their Big Three of Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving played only eight regular-season games together after Harden was traded to the team in January. They’ve grown accustomed to adjusting when a teammate is forced from the lineup.
That doesn’t prevent emotion from seeping in, though. Here’s what Irving had to say about losing Harden in Game 1, via SNY:
It’s never easy to lose anybody, especially this time of the year where we just wanna have fun playing basketball and playing the right way and competing at a high level. 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 just 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 gonna feel his loss no matter what.
I’ve been saying it for a while, just in terms of the journey this year, what it’s taken for us to just continue to persevere and just be resilient. We just gotta dig deep, especially when you don’t know when some of those situations are gonna happen. Like I said we feel for James, and all of us feel it, so just gotta pray and wish him the best and want him to get healthy.
"We're gonna feel his loss no matter what"
Kyrie Irving discusses his emotions regarding James Harden's injury: pic.twitter.com/CQvO13EyqS
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) June 6, 2021
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Nets Waiting on Harden’s MRI Results
Like Irving, Steve Nash was emotional after Harden’s injury. After Saturday’s Game 1, the Brooklyn coach added he had no inkling on when Harden might return.
“You never want to see that for someone like James, who is such an important player and such an incredible player and cares so much. I’m heartbroken for him,” Nash said, via SNY. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, I don’t know is he he’s playing next game, if he’s out. I have no idea, but I’m heartbroken for him that he had to miss tonight. I mean, this guy was so ready and excited to play tonight. 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.”
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