The Nets rightly have scoffed at suggestions they are a better team without six-time All-Star Kyrie Irving, but they certainly have played like one since the $142 million point guard left the lineup last month with a shoulder impingement.
The Nets opened the season with four wins in their first 11 games before Irving was injured Nov. 14 in Denver, but they unmistakably have shown better team-wide ball movement — and have gone 9-3 — in the New Jersey product’s absence from the lineup. They will enter their 13th straight game without him Wednesday against the Hornets.
Irving was putting up 28.