Both the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets have title aspirations this year, but only one of them will be able to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals this year. After Game 1 though, the Nets hold the early advantage over the Bucks. 

Brooklyn defeated Milwaukee 115-107 on Saturday night and they did so without James Harden. Just 40 seconds into the game, James Harden drove to the rim with his left hand and when he came down, he immediately began to grimace and was grabbing at his right hamstring. 

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This was the same hamstring that Harden injured earlier in the season, resulting in him missing 20 games during the regular season for the Nets. Harden immediately left the game, gingerly walking to the locker room, and shortly after left the arena to go get imaging done on that right hamstring. 

So far, no word has been said about the results of Harden’s MRI and if he will be available to come back at some point in this series, but seeing as this is the same injury that he was dealing with earlier in the year, things do not look good for James Harden. 

In Game 1 though, the Nets found a way to win not only with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving being great, combining for 54 points, but Blake Griffin and Mike James were fantastic for Brooklyn. Griffin has his best game with the Nets since joining them in March, going for 18 points and 14 rebounds while shooting 4-9 from three-point range. Off-the-bench, Mike James scored 12 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in 30 minutes after playing just a combined 10 minutes in the whole first-round series against Boston. 

Milwaukee really struggled on the offensive-end of the court in Game 1, which we will talk about shortly, but with Harden potentially being out, could the Bucks look to make some big adjustments in Game 2? Let’s take a look at the three biggest takeaways from Game 1 between the Bucks and Nets.