Kyrie Irving out for Nets against Golden State with right calf tightness

It is not how you start but how you finish.

All things being equal, though, the Nets wouldn’t mind getting off to good starts.

A task which became significantly more difficult once they learned they would be without Kyrie Irving, who the team announced 50 minutes before tipoff would miss Wednesday night’s game against Golden State with what Jacque Vaughn called “tightness” in his right calf during the coach's late-afternoon press conference at Barclays Center.

According to Vaughn, Irving complained of discomfort following pregame shooting and was getting “checked out a little bit” by the team’s medical staff. Following the decision to sit Irving, Nets announced the move on the team’s public relations Twitter account.  

Irving was replaced in the starting lineup by Joe Harris. The remaining starters were Ben Simmons, Kevin Durant, Royce O’Neale, and Nic Claxton.

Irving,30, is averaging 26.1 points in 22 games this season. He had been suspended for eight games earlier this season for posting a link to an antisemitic movie on his Twitter and Instagram feeds. Irving also sat out the Nets’ 136-133 win over the Pacers in Indiana on Dec. 10. In that case, though, Irving was one of eight regulars who were given the game off after having played the night before.

In the 14 games Irving has played post-suspension, he hasn’t scored fewer than 14 points, and is coming off a 38-point performance against the Pistons on Sunday.  

Not having Irving in the lineup wasn’t exactly the news the Nets (19-12) wanted heading into the matchup against the shorthanded, albeit defending NBA champion Golden State (15-17). Vaughn expressed concern about how his team began their last two games, a 119-116 win over Toronto on Dec. 16 and the 124-121 win in Detroit

“The last two games we (hadn’t) come out with the focus and passion that we want to play with on a nightly basis and dug ourselves a hole and had to dig ourselves out of that hole,” Vaughn said. “We don’t want to get (into) a situation whether who is playing on their team or not we’re digging ourselves a hole again.”

Indeed, the Nets fell behind by 18 and 17 points respectively before storming back to win. Against the Raptors, it took an Irving buzzer-beating three to win the game. In Detroit, Durant scored 43 points, including 20 in a stretch of 3:18.

“Definitely not tuned into that day’s work from the start,” was how Vaughn analyzed his team’s mindset entering those games. “That will definitely be the message going into the game. We just want to be a better team than that, just be more professional, mature, about each game.”

Which, to be fair, has been something the Nets have shown signs of being since the decision was made to replace Steve Nash as coach with Vaughn. Under Nash, the Nets were 2-5. In Vaughn’s 24 games as coach, they are 17-7 and are averaging 112.8 points on a league-best 51.2 percent shooting from the field. More telling, the Nets are limiting teams to 46.5 percent shooting from the field, second-lowest in the league in that stretch behind Denver’s 46.4 percent opposition field goal shooting percentage.

“I think it's taking care of some of those little details, little things that probably bit us early,” T.J. Warren said. “Whether that's the rebounding piece, whether that's a turnover piece, whether that's the fouling piece. We're getting some growth in a lot of different areas. That's helping us produce wins. And I think at the end of the day, that concentration level of trying to win that day's game has been heightened with this group, which is good.”