Milwaukee Bucks: Nets James Harden Upgraded to Questionable for Game 5

As of Monday, the Brooklyn Nets were going to be without two of their star players for Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks. Kyrie Irving, who left Sunday’s game with an ankle injury, was ruled out, and James Harden was as well, as he was still dealing with a hamstring injury.

All of a sudden, the Nets “Big 3” was down to just one, with Kevin Durant being the only healthy member of the trio. Obviously, we never root for injuries, but the opportunity for the Bucks to steal a game on the road against the Irving and Harden-less Nets was certainly there.

However, on Tuesday morning and just hours before the two teams take the court, there have been some new developments.

Harden would suffer his hamstring injury just 43 seconds into Game 1 of this series and has been out since. But according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, after participating in the team’s morning shoot-around, Harden went from being reported as out on Monday, to then doubtful, to now questionable and “hopeful” that he can play.

Harden will participate in shoot-around once again prior to the game, and that is when the final decision will be made. But at this time, all signs point to Harden taking the court in Game 5.

Now, with that said, something to be mindful of in all of this is that even if Harden does play, we don’t know the extent of what his playing time will look like. As we all know, hamstring injuries can be very touchy, and it’s unlikely that Harden will be at 100 percent, so the unknown in all of this will be the number of minutes that he plays.

On that same note, Jordan Treske of Behind the Buck Pass made an interesting point that this season when Harden and Durant came back from their hamstring injuries, both came off the bench in that first game. Of course, the playoffs are a different animal, and the winner of Game 5 will have a huge advantage in the series, but this is noteworthy.

This season with Brooklyn specifically, Harden appeared in 36 games, averaging 36.6 minutes per contest with 24.6 points, 10.9 assists, and 8.5 rebounds on 55.2 percent overall shooting and 36.6 percent from deep.

Woj would also note that the Brooklyn “Big 3” has played in only eight regular-season games together and six in the playoffs. Certainly, with Harden back in the fold, this is a much better Nets team than without him, but the Milwaukee Bucks still have a golden opportunity in front of them to win Game 5 on the road and have the chance to close out the series at Fiserv.