The Nets didn’t just lose their first game Sunday in Charlotte. They lost a starter, when Spencer Dinwiddie went down with a knee injury.

Dinwiddie was forced from the game with a strained left knee and didn’t return. The Nets offered no timeline for his return.

“Spencer will be evaluated [Monday] morning, so I don’t have any answers there,” coach Steve Nash said.

Dinwiddie has started all three games at shooting guard alongside Kyrie Irving. He had five points, four rebounds and three assists in 15 minutes in the loss to the Hornets.

Dinwiddie went down awkwardly trying to plant and immediately grabbed at his knee. He did manage to walk off under his own power with 10:12 left in the third, but he was clearly favoring the injured knee and headed back to the locker room. It was a non-contact injury, which is always worrisome.

“He means a lot,” Jarrett Allen said. “When Spencer is going, he can’t be stopped. His offensive game, when he’s going downhill creating shots for others. And even off the court everyone loves having Spencer around. His energy, just his personality is great for the locker room.

“I don’t know what’s happening with him so whenever he’s back, whenever he’s a strong dude, he’ll try and come back as soon as possible.”

The Nets return home for the second half of a back-to-back, hosting Memphis on Monday at Barclays Center. It starts a six-game, 11-day homestand. It remains to be seen how much of it Dinwiddie will miss, or how much Kevin Durant will play against the Grizzlies — if at all.

After being out for 18 months following a June 2019 ruptured Achilles, Durant will be treated very carefully by the Nets.

“I think it’s a decision that we’ll make [Monday],” said Nash. “I almost don’t want to have a preconceived plan. We have ideas about limiting the amount of minutes and impact and minute congestion for sure. We want to protect Kevin coming off 18 months of — I wouldn’t say inactivity, but 18 months of recovery.

“And the rest of the guys as well. We want to be careful with different people, with different vulnerabilities and try to make as smart long-term decisions as we can. I don’t know that I can say there’s a plan right now. It’s more like we’ll continually monitor the situation and make sure that we make the safest or soundest decisions for the group in that moment. So that decision will probably be made [Monday].”

For his part, Durant wants to play, but wasn’t sure if he would face Memphis.

“Most definitely. I definitely want to be able to play back-to-backs, get through ‘em healthy and play my normal minutes, so we’ll see,” Durant said. “We will see how things go and we’ll talk about it [Monday].”

Stretch big Jeff Green was forced from the game late after being hit in the face. He received stitches above his right eye.