Getty Brooklyn guards Kyrie Irving and James Harden while playing the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on February 09, 2021 in Detroit, Michigan.
For the first time since February, the Brooklyn Nets have lost two games in a row. They no longer hold the top seed in the Eastern Conference and are just 2.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks for second place.
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden have all missed a plethora of games for several reasons during this NBA season. The longest layoff of the three stars came just before the All-Star break when KD injured his hamstring against the Golden State Warriors on February 13. What was originally supposed to be a short-term injury ended up costing the Nets star 23 games after further imaging.
The Nets’ three-headed monster of Harden, Irving, and Durant has still only played a whopping seven games together. They have a record of 5-2 in those games.
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Kyrie Talks About the Amount of Time Nets Stars Have Missed
The lack of time that the Nets ‘big three’ have spent together has been frustrating for fans but even more frustrating for the players as they have struggled to build any chemistry as a unit. The season is winding down and Kyrie is just anxiously waiting for the moment that he and his co-stars can take the court together again.
“I’m waiting for all of us to get on the floor playing you know just having a complete team whenever that day comes, I’ll be extremely happy,” Kyrie said of Harden not playing after the loss to the Bucks per SNY.
“We’re just holding the ship right now together. I don’t want to play the what-if game and all that but whenever the time comes when we’re all on the floor hopefully in the near future we’ll be ready to play. But right now we gotta go with who we have and go out there and put on a great show.”
The amount of time that the ‘big three’ have played together was not seen as a big deal for the majority of the season but has recently begun to become a big concern for the second-place Nets. The logic behind the lack of concern was that the team had time left to get on the floor together. As the season comes to a close, time is starting to run out.
“We’re just holding the ship right now… I don’t want to play the what-if game”
Kyrie Irving reacts to the Nets falling to the Bucks without James Harden:
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Harden Still Not a Guarantee for the Start of the Playoffs
Harden was on track for a return after a hamstring injury that was originally supposed to sideline him for 10 days. Then during his on-court rehab, Harden suffered a setback on that same hamstring and has been ruled out indefinitely with no timetable for his return. Nets head coach Steve Nash says the team has to just remain prepared to play without Harden and hold down the fort until his return.
“James, he’ll be back when he’s back. That may not be until the playoffs. It may be sooner. I don’t know,” Nash said of Harden’s injury per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News.
“We have no control over that other than working as hard as we can to support him and getting back to full health to play again. We’re prepared for whenever that may be.”
The Nets will hope to be at full strength when the NBA Playoffs begin on May 22.
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Kyrie Irving Has Strong Reaction to James Harden’s Injury Status