Nets' James Harden is progressing but his return is tentative
The Nets were without James Harden again Sunday and Nets coach Steve Nash, while maintaining that Harden is progressing, could not exactly say what that means. Harden has been sidelined since suffering a strained right hamstring 43 seconds into Game 1 of the series.
"I’m not sure I can answer it," Nash said. "I’m just going off of how’s James doing. Good. It’s getting better. So, I asked him and he says he’s feeling better, doing better. I ask the staff, they say, ‘Yeah, it’s getting better.’ So I don’t know if I can detail what that is, fairly. But he is on the court. He’s doing some shooting, some movement, his rehab, and he’s progressing in the right direction. But I don’t know exactly what he’s capable of right now. I think he’s still in that area where he’s got a little gap to make up. But he’s getting closer. So it’s been positive."
After the game Nash insisted that the possible absence of Kyrie Irving would not change the timeline on Harden.
"James, I think it’s an independent case," Nash said. "Like, I don’t want James to be rushed back. If he’s able to play next game or the game after, that’s fantastic. If he’s not, we don’t want to rush him back and jeopardize doing something worse or making this a long-term injury. So, we’ll see. We will have to take all these things into account and evaluate them and try to make a smart decision."
Griffin sits down stretch
With the Nets in need of help, Blake Griffin wasn’t the answer on this day. He played less than five minutes in the second half and finished the game with eight points, five rebounds and three assists.
"Blake was good, he’s fine," Nash said. "He’s played a lot of minutes, We’ve asked a lot of him and coupling that with the fact that we wanted to play a little faster. We were down in the game to try and speed it up a little bit, go small a little bit more, that’s all. But Blake’s been tremendous for us this series and we’re going to need him. He’s just played a ton. We got in a hole there and tried to speed it up a little bit."
Help wanted
Without Harden and Irving out, Kevin Durant needed help and it didn’t arrive. Joe Harris shot just 3-for-8 and was 2-for-6 from three-point range. While it was a step up from the 1-for-11 nightmare he endured in Game 3, it still wasn’t close to what the Nets needed.
"I thought Joe got good looks last game," Nash said. "Tonight he made a few shots. I would have liked him to shoot a little more, but with Kyrie out we’ll definitely need him to be invested. All our guys need to be invested. Landry , Mike , go down the line, Jeff . Be aggressive. They’re good players and have given us a lot this year and we need them to pitch in."
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
