Kyrie Irving sees 'dangerous' potential for Nets despite Spencer Dinwiddie's injury

The Nets lost a key piece in Spencer Dinwiddie, who suffered a partially torn right ACL during Sunday's 106-104 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, but Brooklyn rallied with Wednesday's 145-141 win over the Atlanta Hawks.

Kyrie Irving was a big reason why, waking up in the fourth quarter with 17 of his 25 points as he sparked a Nets triumph down the stretch.

"I don't want to name anyone individually, but it was a total team effort -- from the sideline to going into timeouts to going to that fourth quarter -- few of the guys just telling me what we needed for us to get over that hump," Irving said Thursday. "The Hawks just kept coming at us, kept coming at us. I mean, it's 140 points scored between both teams. So yeah, we've seen a lot in the short period of time. So as a team, they can tell when one of us isn't necessarily feeling the rhythm of the game. We have so many great players, so getting off the ball is just selfless, and I don't want to be the one in the way of a ball-stopper. So I know my teammates give me confidence when they feel me in that fourth quarter, closing time."

Kevin Durant led the Nets with a game-high 33 points on 11-of-22 shooting, headlining a collective charge that proved the offensive depth for Brooklyn (3-2).

"Dangerous, man -- really dangerous that we can have that many pieces," Irving said. "Obviously, losing Spence was a big blow for us -- huge, huge blow. Even after the game and just realizing that a lot of the ball-handling duties, a lot of the things that I was relying on to have Spence out there in the lineup, don't necessarily have for a while.

"So we obviously wish him well as a team and we want him to get healthy to be ready for whatever comes next in this journey, but just little things like that we're going to miss and then to get another group of guys together in terms of finding that synergy, to be able to carry on the rest of the game. So I'm looking forward to that growth and no game is going to be perfect."

As the Nets prepare for a second game against the Hawks (3-1) in a three-day stretch with Friday's 7:30 p.m. tip-off at Barclays Center, head coach Steve Nash was honest about how Brooklyn needs to fill Dinwiddie's void on both sides.

"I do think maybe we need to start to create more structure at times," Nash said Thursday. "Another player out there that can handle scenarios and situations with his playmaking or point-guard skills is really valuable, depending on the matchups and the lineups.

"So I don't know that we'll philosophically change a lot, but maybe we have to guide certain units and lineups more than we did in the past in the loss of Spencer, for sure."