The Milwaukee Bucks are looking to bounce back going into Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Semifinals series with the Brooklyn Nets that will go down Monday night at the Barclays Center.
Brooklyn struck first with a 115-107 win in Game 1 Saturday night to take an early lead in the series with the Bucks and that came in spite of having lost James Harden 43 seconds into the game.
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Despite the Nets suffering such a big loss, the Bucks were unable to take advantage of Brooklyn going down with one of their star players. Now down 1-0, the Bucks will look to steal a game away to neutralize Brooklyn’s home court advantage in the series.
So without further ado, let’s break down the three biggest things to watch for as the Milwaukee Bucks get set for Game 2 against the Brooklyn Nets.
Milwaukee Bucks will wait for how Brooklyn Nets replace James Harden in starting lineup
Given the fact that the Nets were without Harden for an extended stretch late in the regular season due to a hamstring strain, there was plenty of concern to see him bow out of the game so early.
As it turns out, the Nets are predictably cautious with what they deem as hamstring tightness for Harden, though there is optimism that he could return eventually.
When Harden injured his hamstring in the reg. season, he missed 2 games with hamstring tightness before playing in one game and then missing over a month with the hamstring strain.
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) June 6, 2021
Given that history, Nash said the team will be cautious, but James has "high hopes" of returning. https://t.co/XpDyOLXcwD
Whether that happens this series remains to be seen, but now the Nets will have to fill the massive void left in the wake of Harden’s injury.
In place of losing Harden, the Nets and head coach Steve Nash turned to Bruce Brown to take Harden’s place. Of course, Brown offers a vastly different skill set to that of Harden and that five-man unit had only played together for a total of 14 regular season minutes prior to Saturday night, per NBA.com/stats.
Brooklyn still very much has the talent advantage going in their favor, even after losing Harden, but they’ll have to continue to makeshift their starting lineup just has they have done for the entire regular season. And whoever Nash turns to, whether it’s Brown or elsewhere, will give the Bucks some more gameplanning to do going into Game 2.