#James Harden ‘very confident’ he’ll return to Nets before playoffs

In his first public comments since March, hamstrung Nets star James Harden said he’s not only confident he’ll be back by the start of the postseason, but that he plans to return before the end of the regular season.

With the Nets taking a three-game skid into Dallas Thursday, he can’t come back soon enough.

After a lengthy workout Thursday, Harden spoke to the media and said he’s clearing the final benchmarks needed to return from a right hamstring strain. And he left no doubt that he fully expects to be on the court for a May 22 playoff opener.

“Very, very confident,” said Harden. “I guess the mark I have to hit is the work that I did (Thursday), and I have a couple of those without any feeling. That’s pretty much the mark. But I’m very confident I’ll be back before the postseason, yeah.

“I feel really good. Just trying to get my conditioning back. Just changing speeds, changing direction, making sure you know, the power and quickness is there to be able to move how I move. But so far, so good. (Thursday) was really good and we’ve just got to keep building on that.”

With five dates left on the regular-season slate after Thursday, Harden sounded bullish about playing a game or two by the May 16 finale vs. Cleveland – and his much-needed playmaking making a difference for the suddenly-struggling Nets.

“You’re trying to get me on the first question. That’s the plan,” said Harden. “The plan is to hopefully get an opportunity to play a couple games before the postseason. We’re just taking one day at a time, and I’m going to leave it at that.

“And for the next part, yeah of course my playmaking, scoring and IQ and all that good stuff (should help). But we’ve had a number of opportunities to win games that we didn’t win, and it’s because of the little things we’re not doing consistently.”

The truth about Brooklyn and their Big Three is that with Harden, the Nets have been magnificent. Without him, they’ve been mediocre. Or worse.

The Nets are 27-7 when Harden plays, but 16-16 when he doesn’t. And since the January deal that brought Harden to Brooklyn, when they’ve had to play without him they were just 9-10 coming into Thursday.

The Big Three have only logged 186 minutes together, but Harden was confident that doubling down on the details will help, as will his return.

“Not an issue at all. One of the things that a lot of teams don’t have is talent, so we don’t have to worry about that aspect. We can control the rebounding, and the screening. We can watch film and get better than better at that. But skill-wise we’re elite; so, no, I’m not worried at all,” said Harden.

“I love where we are as a team. And once I get back, just uphill from there.”

These were James Harden’s first public comments since March 29. He’d felt a twinge in his hamstring during a win over Houston two days later and left the game early. He missed the next two games before making a comeback against the Knicks that was all too brief.

He lasted just 4:22 in that April 5 tilt at Barclays Center, and hasn’t played since. After being on the verge of a comeback, he’d suffered a setback on April 20.

“I thought I was returning. But then obviously the feeling still wasn’t there,” said Harden. “So you want to be patient. As much as I love the hoop, I want to be out there, but you’ve got to be smart. And for me, it was alright let’s knock this thing out, get this thing healthy, so we can make a push.

“For me, (I’ve been) going into the postseasons basically since I’ve been in Houston I’ve been playing heavy minutes, just carrying the load. This is an opportunity for me to get my body right going into the postseason, with a clear mind and a clear body. You’ve got 16 games to win; that’s the ultimate goal. That’s the reason why I came to Brooklyn.”