We're not paying you the big money to analyze the 11th man on the bench.

Let's just go to the marquee guys right out of the gate.

Kyrie, What did you like about his play?

Carrie was sensational.

I think he's in a comfort zone right now because he's played his best basketball in his career when he's had another star next to him that takes on most of the attention of responsibility of leadership.

I think that's where he was in a really good zone in Cleveland next to LeBron James.

And he is back there now with Kevin Durant and what it allows Kyrie Irving to do.

It is just go play basketball be himself because he knows ultimately, there is another guy out there that can clean up anything that he needs to clean up.

So the margin for error is much greater now for Kyrie Irving than it was when he was in Boston or when he was in Brooklyn for that short time before Kevin Durant got there when it was really all on him and he had have all the answers after every game, all the accountability, all the responsibility.

It's different when there's another superstar next to you that's a little bit higher on the food chain, which Kevin Durant is, and that's what you saw that Kyrie tonight.

He was relaxed on his greatness shows when he's in that situation, because there's no denying the talent that he has offensively.

He was sensational and and combined with Kevin Durant.

It was just too much for Golden State, too much of an onslaught tonight.

We couldn't take it for granted that Kevin Durant was gonna look the way he did.

That's a big injury.

He came back from, had to work hard to rehab.

He looked really smooth out there.

Yeah, he did.

And I saw enough of them in the preseason just the way he was moving, planting, cutting, jumping, his quickness, his explosiveness to the rim.

He looked 100% to me in the preseason and he certainly looked that way again in this one and we look when you've got two star offensive players and they come out and play that well together at the same time, you're gonna get a lopsided win and that's what happened in this one.

It wasn't competitive I'm really at the end of the first quarter on, and the one thing about Kevin Durant, there's no answer for him.

No matter what you have defensively, what your personnel is, what your scheme is.

He's too long.

His handles too good and his shooting stroke is too good.

He can always get to a spot and go over the top.

Even when you playing well, that's what you saw tonight and with Kevin Durant on your roster, and he's 100% healthy the way he looked tonight, this team immediately gets thrust into a contender status not just for the Eastern Conference, but potentially to win the whole thing.

They've got that much talent.

They've got that much depth.

They've got some things to figure out along the way.

And obviously, Steve Nash is going to get better as the season goes on.

But make no mistake about it.

The Brooklyn Nets are on the scene there in the mix, and they're they're legit.

And and Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, at least for a game, certainly looked like they were having fun playing together.

Malik Anders, out of the bubble and in the real world, glad to have you back on SportsCenter for the analysis.

Kevin Durant looked pretty solid.

How did he feel about his return?

Well, he doesn't want to be the one to rain on Nets fans parades because he said after the game that he knows just how much this fan base has been.

Looking forward to seeing this team come together.

Remember, they had lost seven straight home openers.

That was the longest streak coming into this season for any franchise heading into this year.

But he also said that he's trying to view this as just a building block game.

He's trying to take it one game at a time, not get too high or too low, he said.

He's feeling healthy.

He likes it.

He's being able to add to his repertoire, get MAWR games, Mawr reps underneath his belt.

But he also isn't trying to come out and proclaim, You know what?

I'm ready.

I'm back here.

We go 100% because he is trying to build towards playing his best basketball at the end of the season.

He's already talking about that because he knows how lofty this team's goals are, and he wants to aid them in getting to that championship that they're working towards sample size pretty small one night.

But it was a pretty good night for the other superstar.

Kyrie.

Hey, looked like he fit in quite well.

Additionally, Yeah, he did.

And his teammates Kenny are saying the same thing both on and off of the court.

Kyrie Irving Tonight I asked him why when he said that he wanted to move away from the sort of hero ball that he thought his younger self had been playing.

What caused that change?

And he said the way he'd use it is that he's just changed a little bit.

He feels more comfortable.

He feels like he has the right pieces, the right circumstances around him right now.

And so that's what he's trying to move towards in the same.

At the same time, though, Caris Levert, his teammates, said that really, he's grown as a teammate.

He said that Kyrie has turned into a leader for the team.

He's someone who calls who text after good games and bad and that is how this net team is viewing him.

How different did it feel being out of the bubble in this environment?

still got a mask on Kenny, so it's not that different.

Glad you're falling the rules, Malika.

We'll see you next time.

Thanks for joining us.

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