Recently, the Brooklyn Nets have been ravaged by a wave of positive Covid tests, and some injuries. Heading into a Christmas Day tilt against the Los Angeles Lakers, what originally projected as a headline game is now significantly less star studded. As teams around the NBA scramble to fill out rosters with replacement players, what are teams actually experiencing right now?
The latest out of Brooklyn is that James Harden and DeAndre' Bembry have tested out of health and safety protocols. They're expected to play. So we'll at least have James Harden versus LeBron James on Christmas, if not Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving (both still in protocol) or Anthony Davis (out with a knee injury).
“Nobody [new has] gone into protocols, DeAndre' Bembry's come out,” said coach Nash on Friday about his team. “Nic [Claxton] should be ready to go tomorrow,” said Nash.”I think Blake [Griffin's] knee is better, he's fine. And James will play tomorrow,” said the second-year head coach.
So what has it been like with so many players on the shelf?
“We just do the best we can we get a lot of guys coming off an extended break,” admitted the Nets head coach. “Nobody is in great condition so we have to just manage the group, try to be as competitive as possible at the same time be careful with guys coming out and playing a game after an absence like this is tricky.”
Some of the available players like Harden will have been out between the 10th and the 25th, a solid two weeks without hooping.
The Nets are still in first place at 21-9. The team has a stellar 11-3 road record, although most of those wins of course, came with Kevin Durant leading the charge. Is it at all possible we could see KD for the game agains the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 27? If Durant tested out of protocol, would he fly to L.A. for that one?
“That is possible,” said Steve Nash.
As for Irving, he doesn't seem like his timeline is as close for his return. Have they been around Irving yet, or gotten in any practice time? “No we haven't, he's still in protocols and he needs ramp ups,” said Nash. “So we won't see Kyrie on this trip.” That means it will mostly be James Harden and Patty Mills being asked to continue the team's road-warrior streak going.
They won't even have their young core of Cam Thomas, Kessler Edwards, and David Duke Jr. Both KD and Patty Mills have mentioned how much inspiration they derived from the energy those guys bring to the table. The trio of freshman are in protocols as well. It's going to be a bare bones road trip.
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