Brooklyn Nets: The X File

From the desk: THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Eastern Conference Semifinals

Milwaukee Bucks

vs.

Brooklyn Nets

Joe Harris Is The X Factor

If you ride the Trolley, you know I've been somewhat ragging on Joe Harris this season.  

With Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden all together on the floor, I expected some of Joe Harris's career stats to slightly recede, and they did, but not for the reasons I anticipated.  

Before the James Harden acquisition, I was still expecting Joe Harris to take another step forward and again reset career highs in several categories.  If teams were overly concerned with guarding Durant and Irving, it seemed logical (to me) to think the game would have opened up for Harris.  But after four seasons of incremental, even methodical year-over-year improvement, Harris' attempts per game, rebounds, and points per game this season indeed ticked downward.  Lest we forget, after the addition of James Harden, the Big Three played less than ten games together.  Which is to say Joe Harris had every opportunity to ante up.  

Look, I know he's a hawkeye from behind the arc; his three-point shooting percentage speaks for itself. But I didn't necessarily need Joe Harris scoring 25 points this season when the Big Three were on the court together.  I wanted him scoring that many when one or two of the Three were missing from the lineup.  To that end, Joe's track record is spotty.  

Secondly, Joe Harris rarely follows up one 20-point game with a second straight 20-point game.  Harris scored 25 points in game two, then followed that up with eight points in 35 minutes during Brooklyn's only loss to the Celtics.  He was a little too absent for my tastes in game one, in which he went 3/8 from the field and 2/5 from behind the arc for ten points and three rebounds in 37 minutes.  But he was well involved in games five and six and played good all-around games.  He led the Nets in game five with a plus-17 and posted 14 points, four rebounds, and three assists.  Joe then scored ten points in game six and was second to James Harden with six assists.

• ICYMI  Brooklyn Nets: With A Flick Of The Switch

In their first regular-season match-up back on Jan 8, the Nets defeated the Bucks 125-123 at Barclays Center.  Kyrie Irving did not play.  Joe Harris picked up the slack with 20 points in 37 minutes.  We know Harden to be more of a facilitator than Kyrie.  Playing with Harden, Joe Harris scores more; with Irving, he usually scores less.  The Bucks won the next two games played back-to-back in early May.  James Harden did not play in the May 2 game.  Joe Harris shot 1/5 from behind the arc and finished the game with just five points in 35 minutes.  Jame Harden likewise missed the May 4 game.  Harris, this time finished 4/8 from behind the arc for twelve points.

Cycling back, game two against the Celtics could very well have been an aberration.  That's unfair of me to say, I know.  But the Big Three will not win a title by themselves.  They still need the complimentary players to pull their respective weight.  

I could have saved you from reading all this by simply saying Joe Harris cannot disappear against the Milwaukee Bucks like he did in the 2018-2019 playoffs against the Sixers.  My point is if Joe Harris can give the Nets more consistent performances similar to that of game six, Flatbush becomes near impossible to defeat, or not.  The Association's history is littered with the fourth man playing big in huge moments.  I want to see Joe Harris break away from being an unknown variable and add his name to that narrative.

Joe Harris is the X-factor.