Nets vs Bucks: Kevin Durant scored 29 points, Kyrie Irving had 25 and the two superstars carried the Brooklyn Nets after James Harden’s early injury in a 115-107 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Harden didn’t even make it through a minute before leaving with a right hamstring injury, an injury that forced him to miss two losses to the Bucks in May.
But the Nets beat Milwaukee when it mattered most without him, getting 19 points from Joe Harris and 18 points and 14 rebounds from Blake Griffin.
And they got a solid defensive effort despite giving up plenty of sizes, limiting the Bucks to 13 points below their NBA-leading average.
The Nets take Game 1 over the Bucks 💪
KD: 29 Pts, 10 Reb
Kyrie: 25 Pts, 8 Ast
Blake: 18 Pts, 14 Reb pic.twitter.com/HzCen6OsYI— ESPN (@espn) June 6, 2021
Durant grabbed 10 rebounds and Irving had eight assists, throwing some spectacular passes as the Nets moved the ball around quickly and had the Bucks a step or more behind all night.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 34 points and 11 rebounds, but the Bucks were just 6 for 30 from 3-point range and lost for the first time in the playoffs after storming past Miami in a first-round sweep.
Brook Lopez scored 19 points for the Bucks and Jrue Holiday had 17 points and nine rebounds. Khris Middleton finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds but was 6 for 23, missing all five 3-pointers.
Nets vs Bucks Game 2 is Monday night.
A series that had talent all over the rosters started on a down note when Harden had to come out of the game after just 43 seconds, walking to the back after the Nets called timeout before they had even scored.
Harden predicted a day earlier this series would be a showdown.
His show might already be over.
The Bucks led 32-30 after one but the Nets sprinted past them with an 8-0 run for a 47-42 lead. Another run of eight in a row pushed it to 59-48 on Irving’s layup with 3:22 left in the half, but Milwaukee closed well to get within 63-61 at the break.
James Harden is heading to the locker room with an apparent hamstring injury pic.twitter.com/r8hmUGHF05
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 5, 2021
The NBA’s two highest-scoring teams played at a dizzying pace, where look down after a basket and they might already be shooting at the other end by the time you looked up.
The pace favored the Nets, who pulled away for good in the third quarter.
Durant picked up his fourth foul with 1:36 left in the period, quickly waving his hands toward Nets coach Steve Nash that he didn’t want to come out of the game. Lopez made the two free throws to cut it to nine, but Durant then scored seven straight points, with his 3-pointer pushing it to 98-82 with 5.1 seconds remaining.