The Brooklyn Nets and Kevin Durant hosted the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday in the team's home opener without Kyrie Irving. The stars were out as Jay-Z sat alongside team co-owner Clara Tsai. The Charlotte Hornets came into town undefeated so the Nets knew not to take the upstart young team led by LaMelo Ball lightly. Before the game, head coach Steve Nash, a Hall-of-Fame point guard himself, recently voted one of the 75 greatest players ever, offered high praise for Ball.

Per Nash on the Nets' Sunday foe:

ā€œIncredible vision, play-making, has a feel and flair for the game. He's really quick for a long, tall point guard. He's got a great knack for the game. He's gonna have an excellent career and he's already having a big impact on their team.ā€

Ball certainly had an impact for the Hornets, dropping 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, but Ish Smith of all players closed the game at the point for Charlotte and really put the Nets away.

But it was the 4th year man out of Michigan State, Miles Bridges, who really torched the Nets. Bridges dropped 32 points to go with 9 rebounds. Miles gave the Brooklyn faithful something to think about with this jam:

For the Nets, Kevin Durant was locked in. KD finished with a game high 38 points, on 17-24 from the field. He added 5 boards, 3 assists and a steal.

While the Hornets had no answer for the Nets top superstar, they did a terrific job slowing down everyone else.

The rest of the Nets were a combined 21 of 63 from the floor. That's not a recipe for success.

The Hornets stole this one 111-95 and improved to 3-0, dropping Brooklyn to 1-2.

After the game, Durant was asked if he feels his team has enough firepower in the lineup or if they need Kyrie Irving to return and become their ā€œx-factor.ā€

KD didn't mince words in his reply on the reality facing the Nets:

ā€œI mean while we playing in a game Iā€™m not gonna sit there and say yo, we get down or its a tight game like ā€˜damn we donā€™t have enough.ā€™ Like no, weā€™re not going to be thinking about that during the game. We definitely want Kyrie Irving out here on the floor. And heā€™s a huge part of what we do,ā€ Durant explained.

ā€œBut itā€™s not happening right now so we gotta figure it out. But nobody is gonna lose confidence while we playing and hope Kyrie come and save us during the game. Nah, we gotta play ā€¦ but the good part about it is we got a game tomorrow.ā€

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Durant is the team's leader and his voice will certainly resonate in that locker room. It's no secret that he is close with Irving, but KD is more focused now on winning ballgames for the Nets, not wondering what Irving's plans are in terms of getting vaccinated.

The Nets will host another undefeated team in the Washington Wizards tomorrow. Durant is right. There is no time to wallow and wonder if or when Irving will return.

For now, the mantra is ā€œnext man upā€ and the Nets do have enough firepower to get the win. But they'llĀ  need a better team effort.

It remains to be seen if Durant will even be active on Monday. The team was reluctant to deploy their top gun in back-to-backs last season. Nash said while the team will be mindful of their stars' minutes, things won't be quite ā€œas formulaicā€ as they were last season.

Perhaps Kevin Durant will have some input about whether or not he'll play. If he doesn't, then the rest of the Nets had better shoot a lot better than they did Sunday or they'll find themselves in a 1-3 hole. For now it seems they'll do their best not to think about how much easier things could be if Irving was available to be their x-factor.