APRIL 7: Durant will be available to play on Wednesday night, the Nets have confirmed (Twitter link).
APRIL 6: After nagging hamstring discomfort limited James Harden to just four minutes of action in yesterday’s defeat of the Knicks, a subsequent MRI has indicated that the All-Star Nets guard has a strained right hamstring, the team tweets. The club will reassess the injury in 10 days.
Before his attempted return to the floor Monday, Harden previously missed two games with what was initially diagnosed as hamstring tightness. Harden had edged his way into the league MVP conversation with his stellar play of late, but any extended absence could derail his chances. With Brooklyn, Harden is averaging a sparkling 25.4 PPG, 11.0 APG, 8.7 RPG, 1.3 SPG, and 0.7 BPG, with a solid shooting line of .467/.361/.867 on high volume.
Harden’s comportment in forcing his way off the Rockets likely poisoned the well somewhat among the league journalists who vote for year-end award honors, so earning a second such career honor this season would’ve been an uphill battle even before the injury. Harden’s subsequent play for his new team, however, had made him somewhat undeniable as one of the league’s best players.
Meanwhile, Harden’s fellow Nets All-Star Kevin Durant could rejoin the club from his own strained left hamstring injury as soon as Wednesday against the Pelicans, per Malika Andrews of ESPN. The team officially lists him as probable (via Twitter), but Andrews notes that internally the team anticipates that the forward will play. Durant has been inactive for Brooklyn since February 13.
Since the Nets traded for Harden in mid-January, the team’s three All-Stars (Harden, Durant and Kyrie Irving) have only played together in seven games. Despite this, the club has an Eastern Conference-best 35-16 record.
Harden joins a crowded backcourt injury tally. Head coach Steve Nash suggested on Monday that reserve guard Tyler Johnson could miss two-to-three weeks as he recovers from right knee soreness. Backup guard Landry Shamet has been unavailable since last week with a right ankle sprain. Spencer Dinwiddie continues to rehabilitate from a partially torn ACL and the team expects him to miss the rest of the 2020/21 season.
Crazy that they’re doing so well when they’ve only been at full strength for seven games.
Not so crazy when considering how weak the East is, which makes up the bulk of their competition.
How can you say the east is week if teams are losing to other teams in the east? Ouroboros…
Nah, it’s still crazy. 35-16 and haven’t had their three superstars playing together for 44 of those games.
Cool Story Bro.
Nets are 19-11 vs East
16-5 vs West.
Philly too, when Embiid was out. East is weak though.
The Rockets have been at full strength for exactly 3 of their 50 games this season, and won all three of them. Funny how it works that way, huh?
Baylor could beat the Rockets at full strength who are you kidding
Did they hire the Yankees’ prior training staff?
Three team race in the East so seed is important. 2 and 3 seed will have to play two of three top teams to get to the final.
Every team is now “injured” just in time to face the lakers..anything to keep the lakers afloat for those nba ratings
The Woke Emporium called and wanted me to let you know they have new tin foil hats in stock in case you wanted an upgrade.
Nets injury season better end soon. This is a bad trend heading into playoffs. They will need to be healthy to get out of the East. It’s worth watching to me. Heat, Celtics, Hawks will not be a cakewalk for anybody. And Bucks, Sixers are good enough to win it all.
Honestly, the East is a free-for-all. The 4 to 10 slots are not in any way determined, and injury or just plain bad or good luck can re-shuffle that picture pretty quickly. The Hawks have a pretty easy schedule, so they may stay put, but other than the Pacers, everybody else has a tough schedule and lots of games with each other. This will be very interesting, it looks like the 4 to 10 slots will all be from 34 to 38 wins, just hard to know what order they will be in.
Deep Sixers won’t have Brett Brown making them crazy. Thin Bucks have a big 3. Hawks may not have Hunter. Pacers may not have a forward. Celts are weird. I must root for The Nets Collection©, Dinsactive or not.Tampa
I just don’t buy the whole Nets set up. Its a great fantasy basketball team, they improved a bit in rebounding but they still are relatively weak in that department and poor defensively. I see Miami and the Sixes as both most likely to reach the finals. This assuming that all the stars are healthy, and lets remember Kyrie can miss 10 games hurting himself shaving.
Out of bottom half teams in East. Pacers have the easiest schedule, Hawks I think are in. Knicks, Celtics, Heat, Hornets, Bulls all have tough schedules. Knicks and Hornets the two teams that didn’t make a significant move at TD. Both also have their best players out or missing significant time. It’s why I wanted a Real big so bad for Knicks. This has been a good season so far. Hate to see it end not making playoffs or losing in play in gm. So the sixth seed is what all these teams should be shooting for. Only 4 gms separate the 5th and 10th seed. With 22 gms left in the season. Games get more important now. The good teams will not beat themselves.
NYY isn’t missin’ their best player, like at all… CHA is without LaMelo & also missin’ another starter in Hayward… NYK only missin’ Robinson which is a starter…
Harden is playin’, as always, at MVP level… but as always too, there are others playin’ better than him, so he isn’t the MVP this year, right now is…
#1 Jokic
#2 Giannis
#3 Embiid
#4 Harden
#5 Luka