It took all of 43 seconds for James Harden to be forced out of Game One of the Nets鈥 semifinal round series. He was heading to the basket against the Bucks鈥 Jrue Holiday when his right hamstring 鈥 the same one that sidelined him for 20 games in the regular season 鈥 acted up, compelling him to retreat to the locker room. As it turns out, he left the match for good, with his status for the next game (and beyond) dependent on magnetic resonance imaging results. And, for a while there, his absence proved to be a negative for the black and white.
To be sure, the Nets aren鈥檛 prohibitive favorites to claim the National Basketball Association championship for nothing. They sported a 34-16 slate when they first lost Harden to the injury in early April. They then went 11 and eight prior to his brief return near the end of the regular season. Needless to say, they had the luxury of relying on two other transcendent marquee names in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, not to mention on overachieving complementary pieces led by six-time All-Star Blake Griffin.
The unparalleled wattage of the Nets allowed them to remain competitive despite Harden鈥檚 absence. That said, they understood that their margin for error increases exponentially with him burning rubber instead of pacing the sidelines in street clothes. And by the time they put the finishing touches on a first-round shellacking of the undermanned Celtics, he appeared to be rounding into form. Certainly, there was no reason to expect him to catch the injury bug anew. But he did, and the unexpected turn of events, in Durant鈥檚 estimation, disturbed their balance. 鈥淟osing one of your leaders like that on the first play of the game, we had to regroup for a couple of minutes and figure out what was next,鈥 he said.
Actually, the Nets needed more than just 鈥渁 couple of minutes鈥 to regain their composure. Once they got their groove, however, the Bucks proved to be no match for them 鈥 not even with two-time Most Valuable Player awardee Giannis Antetokounmpo putting up stellar numbers. They took the lead for good with 8:41 left in the second period, with timely efforts on both ends of the court keeping the opposition at bay until the final buzzer. As Durant noted, 鈥済uys came in and just tried to play extremely hard. We didn鈥檛 care about anything else but playing and executing the game plan and just leaving it all out there.鈥
True, the Bucks need to, and can, do better given the potential of their personnel to keep pace. As head coach Mike Budenholzer argued, 鈥淥ur guys got to execute defensively regardless of who鈥檚 on the court, execute offensively regardless of who鈥檚 on the court.鈥 Whether they will, though, is another matter altogether. The Nets have shown a capacity to dominate even at less than full strength, and even with far from optimum efficiency. And unless and until they are able to play to potential, they will find themselves casualties of the same result.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since 大象传媒 introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
