James Harden re-injures hamstring in first half vs. Knicks [UPDATE]

UPDATE: April 5 — Harden was forced to leave Monday’s game early after re-injuring his hamstring against the New York Knicks in the first half. Harden had missed two straight games due to the injury and was questionable to play on Monday night. He was ruled in despite the injury and had to exit as a precaution, likely.

UPDATE: April 3 — Harden is still dealing with a hamstring injury and has been ruled out for Sunday’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls, according to ESPN’s Malika Andrews. There’s no timeline for his return at this time.

UPDATE: April 1 — To nobodies surprise, Harden has been ruled out for Thursday vs. the Hornets. He left last night’s game vs. the Rockets due to hamstring tightness and the team is clearly going to be safe with this. So with Harden and Durant sidelined, it’s Kyrie Irving’s Nets team again. Irving will be a top GPP play on DraftKings for Thursday’s slate, also try and get in on some of his player props if you can quickly before the lines go down.

Note: Jeff Green and LMA will start along with Kyrie Irving, Bruce Brown and Joe Harris against the Hornets.

Blake Griffin will also take the night off to rest on the back-to-back. Landry Shamet and LaMarcus Aldridge will be available to play. This will be LMA’s Brooklyn debut if he gets some action. We’ll see just how much Aldridge plays in his first game for the Nets. He could get some run with Griffin sidelined.

Brooklyn Nets G James Harden was forced to leave Wednesday’s game vs. the Houston Rockets in the second half due to a hamstring injury. Harden was dealing with some tightness is his right hamstring and did not come back for the fourth quarter. The Nets and Rockets are in an unorthodox competitive basketball game after three frames with the score 91-89 early in the fourth quarter.

Harden will finish out the revenge spot with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in 27 minutes for the Nets. Kyrie Irving is leading the team with 29-7-6 in the fourth quarter. The Nets are already down Kevin Durant, who is also dealing with a hamstring injury that has sidelined him for the past few months. If Harden misses any time, the Nets will need to lean on Irving. This isn’t anything new to the team. Brooklyn has been operating most of the season without all three superstars healthy or in the lineup.

This kind of sucks for Harden, though. He had been putting up close to a triple-double per game in March, averaging 28.9 points, 12 assists and 9.9 rebounds per game. The Nets entered Wednesday 10-2 this month, which effectively launched Harden into the thick of the NBA MVP conversation. He also entered the day with the second-best odds to win the award at +550, right behind Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.

If Harden misses any time, he can kiss any chance at winning MVP goodbye (similar to KD). Kyrie will have an opportunity to step up in fantasy and DFS. The Nets have a quick turnaround with a game against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday before facing the Chicago Bulls on Easter Sunday, then the New York Knicks on Monday. So with a few back-to-backs coming up, Harden could sit out to be fresh for the run at the No. 1 seed in the East.