James Harden hasn’t had the best couple of months with the Brooklyn Nets, getting injured a couple of times, being forced to being sidelined since late March. The Beard was having an outstanding season with his team, even getting in the MVP conversation with Nikola Jokic.
After he went down, the Serbian big man had a clear path to win the award, and the Nets haven’t had the best time without the 2018 NBA MVP. He missed a couple of games before, but after his extended absence, the New Yorkers are getting worse, and not even Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant have been able to prevent their 4-game losing streak.
One Redditor called “__gabe” recently shared the different records the Nets have with Harden on the court compared to the ones when he’s out of action. Steve Nash’s team is 27-7 with Harden, pretty good. On the other hand, they are 16-17 without the Beard on the court.
The good news for them is that Harden aims to return to the court right before the playoffs. That should bring some hope for the squad that hasn’t looked good in the past couple of games. The Nets Big 3 has played only seven games together, winning five and losing two.
It’s still unknown how they will work together, but Harden seemingly is the glue they need to put things together.
“The plan is to hopefully get an opportunity to play a couple games before the postseason,” Harden said on Thursday. “We’re just taking one day at a time. And I’m gonna leave it at that.”
With all the injuries happening in the league this season, Harden agreed that keeping the core on the court will be crucial for the Nets if they want to win something this year.
“I think the most important thing for us going into the postseason is health,” Harden said. “And this season has been so condensed. You see a lot of guys going down because of the amount of games, so I think for us, our mindset is, if we can come into this postseason healthy, we are right there and we’ve got a chance, and that’s it right there within itself, so finish these last six games out strong, focus on the things we need to focus on, things we can control, and go out there and have fun, and we’ll live with the results.”
The guard quickly became the most important player for the Nets and they’re hoping to get their star back on the court before the postseason starts. They will need a healthy Harden to compete in the Eastern Conference that features big competition this year.
