Kevin Durant, Nets not hoping Kyrie Irving comes to ‘save the day’

Kyrie Irving is not walking through the Barclays Center doors to save the Nets anytime soon — and Kevin Durant knows it.

After the Nets offense sputtered in their first game at home — a 111-95 loss to a young, fun Charlotte Hornets team — Durant addressed the elephant in the room: The Nets are not as good without Irving as they would like you to believe.

“We definitely want Kyrie Irving out here on the floor, and he is a huge part of what we do, but it is not happening right now,” Durant said. “So we’ve got to figure it out, but no one is going to lose confidence while we’re playing and hope Kyrie comes to save us during the game. No, we’ve got to play.”

Durant, though, stopped short of saying the Nets don’t have enough talent to win games.

“I am not about to say that we’re not going to have enough out here,” he said. “I am not going to say that…. They played a better second half. It’s three games in. Of course we have enough.”

Head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks both agreed that the Nets roster was built to support three superstars, not just two. The Nets, however, have been left with just two ever since a COVID-19 vaccine mandate went into effect in New York City.

Irving is unvaccinated and is not expected to get vaccinated to return back to basketball.

The Nets could have allowed Irving to play as a part-time player. He would have been eligible to practice with the Nets in Brooklyn and play in road games, since vaccine mandates do not apply for visiting players.

The Nets chose instead to exile their star guard until either he gets vaccinated or the City loosens its vaccine mandate.

Neither has happened, and the Nets find themselves in uncharted territory. James Harden is their second star, but has not played to his capabilities due to recent injuries and a rule change that impacts the frequency he shoots free throws. That has left much of the offensive burden on Durant, who scored 38 points and only missed seven shots against the Hornets, but watched as those buckets were in vain in a 16-point loss to a lesser opponent.

On the same day anti-vaccine protestors attempted to bumrush the Barclays Center front doors in Irving’s name, Durant acknowledged the Nets have a lot of work to do. Work Irving isn’t available to help them complete.

“Everybody here is confident in what they do. We’ve just got to play,” Durant said. “It is a matter of us coming together and figuring out which way we need to play on both ends of the floor, and that is just a matter of it being early in the season and us figuring out these lineups. The good part about it is we have a game tomorrow.”