Google News Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo: I wish Kyrie Irving speedy recovery
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Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash admitted he doesn't know what will happen with Kyrie Irving in the coming days. Irving, the starting Nets guard, sprained his right ankle early in the game against the Milwaukee Bucks and did not return.
The Bucks beat the Nets in Game 3 107-96 to even the series at 2-2. "I have no idea what is going to happen with [Irving] in the coming days," Nash said. "We will cross our fingers and hope that it is better than I don't know -- better than what -- better than missing the next game? "We all have to pitch in.
We all got to play together." Irving landed on Antetokounmpo's foot and injured himself. "I really don't know," Antetokounmpo said, when asked what happened from his perspective on the play. "I thought he got hit in the groin at first.
When I went back to the locker room, they said that he sprained his ankle. I wish him a quick recovery, and hopefully he can be ready for Game 5. Wish him nothing but the best, but we have to keep focusing on ourselves, keep focusing on the task at hand, keep having fun and try to win games."
Irving and James Harden injured
"I don't want James to be rushed back," Nash said.
"If he's able to play next game, or the game after, that's fantastic. If he's not, we don't want to rush him back and jeopardize doing something worse or making this a long-term injury." Nets head coach Nash also acknowledged he understands the physical defense of P.J.
Tucker. "He's playing extremely physical and made it difficult," Nash said. "That's his role on their team and I thought it was borderline non-basketball physical at times, but that's the playoffs. You have to adapt and adjust.
Something definitely in a sense changed from the way the game was played in Brooklyn and here in Milwaukee." Elsewhere, Denver Nuggets star big man Nikola Jokic was ejected from Game 4 after fouling hard Phoenix Suns guard Cameron Payne.
"I wanted to change the rhythm of the game, I wanted to give us some energy, maybe change the whistle a little bit, so I wanted to make a hard foul," Jokic said. "Did I hit him, did I not hit him? We don't know. So I say sorry if I did because I did not want to injure him or hit him in the head on purpose."