He described the injury as “almost like having a really, really bad sprained ankle, but on the bottom of your foot,” and said cutting, planting and exploding were hurdles he needed to cross.
“A cramp? I wish it was like a cramp,” Green said three days before the team upgraded his status.
He injured it on March 31, aggravated the injury on April 5, suffered a setback in practice on April 19, then re-aggravated the hamstring again on June 5, 43 seconds into Game 1 against the Bucks.
It sucks because I want him to be out there,” Kevin Durant said after Harden’s injury.
If Green returns for Game 4, he adds another defender the Nets can throw at Giannis Antetokounmpo, who went for 33 points and 14 rebounds in the Bucks’ 86-83 win on Thursday.
Antetokounmpo dominated the Nets with a flurry of rim-rattling dunks, but the Bucks’ Game 3 victory can largely be attributed to All-Star wing Khris Middleton.
“I don’t think we played him with the same physicality, at least not to start the game in Game 3, but he hit some shots,” said Blake Griffin after practice on Saturday.
While the Nets allowed Antetokounmpo and Middleton to dominate in Game 3, they are confident in their abilities to slow them down because they kept their pair of stars in check earlier this series.
I know he’s got points here and there, he had points in the last game, but we’re just trying to make it tough on him.
The Nets had a strong defensive performance in their Game 3 loss but may have come out with the win had they not dug themselves an early hole.
“That’s kind of what we touched on a little bit earlier, where it’s really tough to win games when you dig yourself that type of hole early on, especially its a huge game, especially from Milwaukee’s end,” said Joe Harris.