” woke up and was like, ‘You know what? Let’s go,'” Harden said after finishing with five points in 46 minutes in Brooklyn’s 114-108 victory over Milwaukee on Tuesday night as the Nets took a 3-2 lead in this best-of-seven series.
It was the first time Harden was available to play in a game since June 5, when he aggravated his hamstring in the first minute of Game 1 of this series.
From the opening moments of the game, it was apparent he wasn’t going to be able to contribute how the former NBA MVP normally would.
Harden hardly got out of first gear at any point in the game, largely serving as a decoy on offense and simply trying to stay out of the way defensively.
“I was a little nervous for him because he hasn’t played in a while and that’s a physical team and his hamstring is one of those injuries that takes a while to heal.
“I didn’t expect to play, so 46 is a lot,” Harden said with a laugh.
The Nets likely will have to do so without Irving, who missed the game with a sprained right ankle that he suffered in Game 4.
The Big Three of Harden, Irving and Durant played just eight games together in the regular season and six games together in the playoffs — including the game in which Harden was injured after just 43 seconds.
As long as there’s a ‘W’ in that column and we keep racking up wins, that’s all that matters.
So we know that there was gonna be times in the postseason where we hit adversity where things feel like they’re up against us and they can’t be done.