The Brooklyn Nets are set to take on Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. With Kevin Durant out through at least the All-Star Break with a sprained MCL, that would have left James Harden and Kyrie Irving to try to get some revenge against the Warriors.

To recall, the Dubs thrashed the Net 117-99 in mid November at Barclays Center. That was before Irving was allowed back by the team. But now, Irving will be without Harden as well.

Not long before tip-off Saturday, Harden–who missed the last game against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets because of left hamstring tightness–popped up on the injury report as a game-time decision with a hand injury. This is a new one. Harden will now miss his seventh game of the year with that issue, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.

James Harden is a lefty, so that's perhaps some good news mixed into this bad news. It would have been more troublesome if the issue had been on his shooting hand.

Nets coach Steve Nash provided an update during his pregame media availability.

“James, his hand has been bothering him for a few days at least,” said Nash, who used to work for the Warriors as a Special Advisor learning under coach Steve Kerr. “But he thought it was nothing and then it really flared up this morning when he woke up. So obviously irritated what he was feeling yesterday and then this morning he woke up with some irritation so we had a scan and there's- I think what we're calling it is- a hand strain, per a doctor. So just unfortunate
.”

What did the MRI reveal, was it clean?

“Clean, just clean of the bad stuff,” added Nash, “but a strain, for sure. There's stuff on the MRI so he's feeling something and feeling a strain, and like I said it's been bothering him, like he was like ‘eh, it's nothin,' now it's a little more than nothing so he woke up with a marked difference in the hand.”

Who would make the determination?

“That's up to physio, I dunno what the steps are to see if he gets to that stage.”

So now that we know James Harden won't play, we can guess that the “physio” department didn't think he was up for it. There was some more good news about Harden's hamstring though. Is the hamstring tightness gone?

“Yeah, yeah yesterday he worked out and felt great, so the hammy I believe is resolved,” Nash furthered.

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Mavericks Kyrie Irving looking serious in front.

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Mavericks' Luka Doncic with eyes popping out looking at Clippers' Russell Westbrook. Have Westbrook looking angry with smoke coming out of his ears.

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The Nets will start Irving, Patty Mills, Nic Claxton, DeAndre' Bembry and Kessler Edwards.

The best news is that the hamstring is better and that the MRI on Harden's hand came back clean from anything very serious. Still, this was enough to cost the Beard a huge game for the Nets and we know that will hurt him. Harden is not typically a player who likes load-management, as he wants to be out there every night. He'll have to watch Kyrie Irving battle against Stephen Curry and the team with the second best record in the league.

Curry's teammate Andrew Wiggins just got voted as a starter on the Western Conference All-Star team. He's glad he got vaccinated now. The Canada native would have been ineligible to play at home this season in San Francisco if he opted not to take the jab. They have similar mandate rules to NYC.

Irving once famously beat the Warriors in game seven of the 2016 NBA Finals with one of the biggest shots in NBA history. At least Harden will have courtside seats for this battle.