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As if the Nets could afford another curveball to be thrown at them this season, according to the New York Post Kyrie Irving is now expected to be out 1-2 more weeks with his shoulder injury that has caused him to miss nearly half of the games this season with his new team.

Irving has been out with what the Nets are calling a “shoulder impingement.” The medical term for this injury is subacromial impingement, which basically is when your rotator cuff is being compressed against the top of your shoulder blade. That’s pretty serious. Reportedly more serious than most people thought.

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Even Nets Head Coach Kenny Atkinson saw tonight’s game as a possible first game back for the 6X All-Star.

Despite being 6-3 in the nine games that Irving had missed going into tonight’s game against the Hawks, the Nets clearly miss their point guard and his fourth quarter closing ability. Two out of the three games without Kyrie that they lost (vs. the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat) were very close games going into the fourth quarter.

Against the Celtics the Nets started the fourth quarter down five points 91-86. Against the Heat, the Nets started the fourth quarter down two points 83-81.

Initially the Nets didn’t think the injury was as serious as it is. Then on November 23 (after already missing four games) the team announced that Irving would be out for at least the next three, which were all road games. Coincidentally they were against the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics; all teams that Kyrie is often linked to.

Here are a few things you probably already know, but could use for context clues. With the Celtics it was widely believed all of last season that Irving would take his talents from TD Garden to Madison Square Garden. With the Cavaliers, despite winning a championship with them in 2016, it was a bad breakup between the two that ended with Irving forcing a trade out of Cleveland. With the Celtics, Irving once again found himself unhappy, but walked away as a free agent this time. This landed him in Brooklyn.

Unfortunately for Irving, outside of his team, people weren’t as understanding of his shoulder injury.

“Kyrie looked at the schedule before the season started and planned this whole injury thing because he didn’t want to go back to Boston this upcoming week,” said former Celtic Kendrick Perkins. “He didn’t want that smoke in the Bean Town. Smh.”

Perkins was just one of many who questioned the validity of the injury, but with the latest injury update that noise should definitely be silenced.

Fortunately for the Nets they are now 7-3 after putting together a dominant performance against the Atlanta Hawks at the State Farm arena tonight. They won 130-118.

However, despite still winning games the Nets could use Irving, who besides two matchups against the Hornets, have a few challenging games coming up against the Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers. These are all teams that are well above .500.

In 11 games Irving this season is averaging 28.5 PPG, 7.2 APG and 5.4 RPG, all career highs.