NBA Twitter has a meltdown over James Harden leaving Game 1 with injury
By Scott Rogust
The Brooklyn Nets lost James Harden early in Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks with an right hamstring injury.
After the defeating the Boston Celtics in five games, the Brooklyn Nets moved onto their next challenge — the Milwaukee Bucks. The Nets had to feel good about their chances on Saturday night, especially given the performances by their big three in Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving. Unfortunately, things got ugly in a hurry for Brooklyn.
In the first minute of the game, Harden was seen walking to the locker room on the TNT broadcast. When looking at the replay, Harden grabbed at his right hamstring after driving to the basket, and walked to the tunnel inside Barclays Center. At the end of the first quarter, the Nets ruled out Harden for the remainder of the game.
NBA Twitter reacted accordingly to seeing Harden leave Game 1 extremely early with the hamstring injury.
James Harden is heading to the locker room with an apparent hamstring injury pic.twitter.com/r8hmUGHF05
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 5, 2021
It looked like James Harden hurt his hamstring on his first drive of the game. He immediately grabbed at his right hamstring, never ran - or even jogged - again, and walked straight back to the locker room.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) June 5, 2021
https://twitter.com/TheNBAHustle/status/1401323126047219712
Aaaaaaand it took all of 43 seconds for James Harden to be grabbing at his hamstring. So that's fun.
— Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet) June 5, 2021
The Bucks are on point. The Nets lose James Harden and Kevin Durant can't inbound the basketball.
— Chris Walder (@WalderSports) June 5, 2021
Hate to see an injury so early. Hope James Harden is all good!
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) June 5, 2021
Smh James harden tweaked his hamstring it was a good season nets
— Greatness On Display 🤴🏾🤵🏾🐐 (@TH3_GOD_) June 5, 2021
https://twitter.com/officiallyrory/status/1401324042502737922
Nets: James Harden leaves Game 1 with apparent injury
This is definitely something that Nets fans are concerned about. As mentioned in some of the tweets above, Harden had previously suffered a right hamstring injury this season, and it forced him to miss 21 games. Even with Harden absent, the Nets kept it close with the Bucks, ending the first quarter down 32-30.
Harden was lights-out throughout Brooklyn’s first-round series with Boston, especially in Game 5, where the star tallied a triple-double (34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists). Overall Harden averaged 27.8 points, 10.6 assists and 7.2 rebounds through those five games.
Brooklyn having their three stars healthy throughout the playoffs made them the favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Playoffs. Now, the Nets will have to go without Harden for the remainder of Game 1. From there, the Nets will wait and see how severe the injury is and if Harden will miss any additional time in the playoffs.
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