NEW YORK _ If there was any rust for Kyrie Irving after sitting 26 games with a right shoulder impingement, the All Star guard shook it off pregame.
Irving arrived at Barclays Center three hours before the Nets' 6 p.m. tip-off against the Hawks on Sunday. He worked with assistant coach Jacque Vaughn and other trainers for 20 minutes before any other players from either team arrived on the court.
It's no wonder Irving danced around the Hawks in the Nets' blowout 108-86 win in his first game back from injury. He first played a game of around-the-world against himself long before the competition walked into the arena.
Irving practiced every shot he has in his toolbox: left-handed floaters off the right leg, turn-around fading jump shots at each elbow, spinning bank shots in the mid-range and side-step threes from each wing.
By the time he got warm, Irving couldn't miss from downtown. Then he got hot against the Hawks and never cooled off.
It was a pick your poison kind of night for Irving, who did it at every level, finishing at the rim, in the mid-range and draining his only three-pointer of the night _ a running pull-up three from deep to give the Nets a 21-9 lead in the first quarter.
If there's a way an All Star is supposed to play, Irving exemplified it in his injury return. He scored 21 points in 20 minutes on the court, shooting a marksman-like 10-of-11 from the field.
Irving became just the sixth player this season to shoot at least 11 field goals and miss just one or none. It doesn't get more efficient than that.
On one possession in the first quarter, Irving whirled around a screen before crossing over Hawks forward John Collins to finish with a lefty floater, just like he'd practiced pre-game. On the very next possession, he blew by Hawks rookie Brandon Goodwin before extending his arm out and finishing at the rack with one hand.
How were the Hawks supposed to prepare for such a supreme offensive talent?
"You don't," Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce said pre-game. "We don't have any film on him from this year. He's been out for a significant amount of time. What you prepare for is what you know. He's still Kyrie."
Kyrie is still Kyrie; always has been and always will be. It's the reason the Nets signed him to a max contract in free agency, and the reason the entire complexion of Brooklyn's season changes now that he's returned to the lineup.
"I think sometimes you just forget how good this team can be when you add it all up," Pierce said of the Nets.
Pierce's Hawks never truly stood a chance, and any result other than a blowout victory would have been an embarrassment for the Nets at home. Trae Young did not play due to left hamstring pain. That's 29 points and 9 assists missing from a Hawks team carrying the league's worst record.
But it wasn't just Kyrie Irving against the world. Everybody ate for a Brooklyn team that recorded back-to-back wins after losing seven in a row. The Nets jumped out to a 37-16 lead after the first quarter. Five different players recorded at least two field goals in the opening period, and six Nets scored in double figures by the time the final buzzer sounded.
The game was basically over when the Nets took a 70-46 lead into halftime.
There wasn't much to glean from Irving's first game back from injury because there wasn't much of a game to begin with. What's clear, however, is that Irving's shoulder issues didn't appear to appear to be much of a problem.
And if Irving can stay healthy for the Nets after missing 26 games due to injury, Brooklyn becomes a lightyears more dangerous team in the blink of an eye.
