#Nets lose another star as Joe Harris leaves bubble

The already decimated Brooklyn Nets didn’t just lose a game Wednesday, but also one of their Bubble Big 3 when Joe Harris left the NBA campus in Orlando.

Harris left the bubble due to a non-medical personal matter, with the Nets saying the status of his return will be updated as information becomes available.

Brooklyn fell 104-99 to defending champion Toronto in Wednesday’s Eastern Conference first-round Game 2.

Harris had 14 points and 15 rebounds against the Raptors on Wednesday — topping his career-high of a dozen boards set Jan. 6, 2018, against Boston. But with the Nets now down 2-0 in the series, the odds of seeing him again this season are slim.

The Nets will have to extend the series to either Game 6 or Game 7 for Harris to have any shot to return, quarantine and get back on the court, based on the circumstances of his departure, according to ESPN.

Harris had been playing exceptionally well and been a rock for the Nets, along with stalwarts Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen. He averaged 20 points on 62 percent shooting and 54.1 percent from 3-point range in the seeding games. And after having struggled mightily in last season’s first-round series loss to Philadelphia, Harris has acquitted himself well in these playoffs.

In two games against the defending champ’s league-leading defense, Harris has averaged 16.5 points on 52.2 percent shooting and 58.3 from deep.

Coming off a two-year, $16 million contract, Harris is expected to get a significant raise this offseason as an unrestricted free agent. The Nets are set to be well over the cap and just $2 million below the luxury tax even if they don’t retain Harris, but GM Sean Marks has said re-signing him is a top priority. If they don’t, they’ll only have about $5 million to replace him with.

Harris has put down roots in Brooklyn, staying in town throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He spoke about how the worst part of the outbreak for him was his fear of infecting his ailing mother, who was staying with him.

“My mom [Alice] had been staying with me because she was diagnosed with cancer earlier in November, so she was doing a lot of her treatments here with Weill Cornell,” Harris said. “I was obviously worried to be around her when we’d initially come back from California, just given the uncertainties around corona and how it affects people with compromised immune systems.

“For me, that would definitely be the worst period. Thankfully she is doing well from a health standpoint right now, but that was my biggest concern, and the worst period for me was just having to worry about all that initially.”