Kyrie Irving not listed on injury report for Wednesday vs. Pacers [UPDATE]

Update, Jan. 4 — Irving is not listed on the injury report for Wednesday’s game vs. the Pacers. That means he should return to the lineup and make his season debut. We’ll see if that changes at all in the next 24 hours and change. The Nets could add Irving to the report later Tuesday or Wednesday with a designation. Until then, we operate under the assumption he is going to play. How much will he play is another question altogether.

Brooklyn Nets PG Kyrie Irving is expected to return to the lineup and make his season debut on the road against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Monday morning. Irving has missed the first 35 games of the season after refusing to get vaccinated to comply with New York City’s mandate.

The Nets agreed to bring Irving back to the team and he’s going to play strictly in road games for the time being. Brooklyn enters this week 23-11 and are tied for second place in the Eastern Conference despite having to deal with COVID-19 outbreaks and injuries through the first half of the season.

Irving should come back and start at PG for a Nets team in need of a boost. Brooklyn has lost two in a row and aside from LaMarcus Aldridge, are completely healthy throughout the roster. There’s no reason to be worried about Irving in his return. He’s one of the best PGs in the NBA. Perhaps it’ll take a bit for him to get back up to speed but this will be huge for the Nets overall.