When Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving left town barely a week ago, they took the Nets’ star power with them.

For the first time since the trade deadline last Thursday, it appears the Nets may have a new star.

This is what hope looks like in Brooklyn: a long, 6-foot-6, two-way standout who can score from everywhere and yet still has declared defense is his top priority.

Mikal Bridges did everything Wednesday night — including serving as the closer for a team that needed one — as he scored a career-high 45 points in an impressive, 116-105 victory over the Heat in front of a sellout crowd of 17,963 at Barclays Center.

“Never scored 40 in my life, so it’s a first,” Bridges said after shooting 17-for-24 from the floor, including 7-for-10 in the fourth quarter.

The fifth-place Nets (34-24) will enter the All-Star break on a positive note as they moved 2 ½ games up on the Heat (32-27), who fell to the seventh seed because the sixth-place Knicks won Wednesday. Victories like this one will be important for the Nets to avoid the play-in tournament.

Bridges scored 17 points in the fourth quarter as the Nets ran away from a solid Miami team. Bridges took over midway through the period, scoring 15 straight Nets points. During that stretch, the Nets’ one-point lead ballooned to 10 with 4:55 to go.

In a game that featured Heat stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, Bridges was the best player on the court. During the game-changing spurt, Bridges broke down Butler off the dribble and finished with a jumper while drawing a foul. Then, excellent ball movement found Bridges in the corner, from where he nailed one of his four 3-pointers on the night. After that, Spencer Dinwiddie found Bridges on a cut, and he banked in the running layup.

Bridges scored from all levels, seemingly at will, and emerged as the Nets’ go-to scorer after playing a more complementary role with the Suns.

“If we keep learning and growing together, I feel like we’ll be a scary team that teams don’t want to play against,” said Bridges, whose Nets held the Heat to 28.6 percent shooting from 3-point range. “Defense comes first before anything.”

When Irving and Durant forced their ways out of Brooklyn, the Nets not only lost stars, but also lost game plans. Their offense had been built around the pair of all-time scorers.

On Wednesday, Bridges led the starting group and Cam Thomas, who finished with 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting, paced the reserves. Thomas single-handedly outscored the entire Heat bench, which finished with 16 points.

If the Nets’ many wings are able frustrate opposing offenses and their sharp-shooters drain 3s, while Bridges leads the starters and Thomas paces the bench, head coach Jacque Vaughn might have a winning blueprint for the rest of the season.

“I think that’s an ideal picture tonight,” Vaughn said of Thomas, who has been trying to find his niche following his three-straight 40-point nights before the trade deadline. “For him to come off the bench and have the attention that he garnered, to be able to make shots for us, to be able to create for us. There was a little bit of a lull in our offense before he checked in, and he has the ability to create shots for us.”

The Nets withstood a balanced Heat attack, with all five of MIami’s starters scoring in double figures. The Nets’ length bothered Butler, who finished with just 13 points, and Nic Claxton annoyed Adebayo, who still scored 24 points on 19 shots.

“I think we can even be better,” said Cam Johnson, who came over from Phoenix with Bridges and added 18 points. “So many instances where we can be better. … It just shows that this group is capable of a lot.”

The Nets, who welcomed back Seth Curry and were fully healthy for the first time this season, pruned their rotation down to 10. Though they are still learning to play alongside one another, they looked closer to being on the same page as they improved to 2-3 since the trade deadline.

There were signs of cohesion that had not existed before. Ben Simmons (two points, four rebounds, four assists in 20 minutes) turned into a quarterback on an inbounds pass to Bridges with 2.7 seconds left in the third quarter, throwing a deep completion. Bridges came down with the ball, spun and nailed a 12-footer to give the Nets a three-point edge entering the fourth. Bridges kept rolling as his teammates fed the ball to their budding star.

“That ability to pick each other up and create for each other and stay together,” Vaughn said, “it’s kind of who we have to be identity-wise.”