Mikal Bridges is no Kevin Durant, but he was still embraced by the Barclays Center crowd in his Nets debut on Saturday night.

With the forward scoring a team-high 23 points in the loss to the 76ers, Bridges helped the Nets stay ahead for most of the game and perhaps provided a blueprint for how they can remain competitive for the rest of the season.

His next chance to make an impact comes Monday night, when the Nets face the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Bridges will be going up against a pair of former college teammates, as the Knicks have Jalen Brunson and newly acquired Josh Hart.

“I’m really excited,” Bridges said of facing his old Villanova teammates. “I love my boys, but when I’m on the court, I don’t like them.”

Bridges, who missed his first NBA game on Thursday following his trade from the Suns, didn’t waste time in showing how he could make an impact with his new team.

He made plays at both ends of the floor, but missed a driving layup that would have given the Nets a one-point lead with two seconds left in the fourth quarter.

On the night, though, he was a force and made a quick impression on his new fans.

Early in the third quarter, Bridges went to the free-throw line and was greeted by chants of “Brooklyn Bridges” as he hit the two free throws that put the Nets up by eight points.

He said he was very aware of the crowd’s reaction.

“Sure, I love it,” Bridges said. “Usually I’m locked in, especially at the free-throw line. But hearing that chant, I kind of wanted to join in and make them yell louder. … People were already saying ‘Brooklyn Bridges’ when I got traded. I like it.”

Prior to the game, Bridges said Brooklyn “felt like home already,” as he tried to dispel any thoughts that he was unhappy about the trade that brought him and Cam Johnson to the Nets in exchange for Durant prior to Thursday’s trade deadline.

The pair said they expected to be traded for Durant as far back as June and talked to each other about playing in Brooklyn.

After Saturday’s loss, the Nets remained in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, 2 ½ games behind fourth-place Cleveland and 1 ½ games ahead of sixth-place Miami.

And they came very close to forcing overtime on Saturday, with Spencer Dinwiddie’s three-point attempt coming just after the buzzer sounded, as the Nets blew what was a nine-point lead with 6:52 left in regulation.

“It’s part of the adjustment process,” Dinwiddie said of the team’s difficulty scoring down the stretch in the loss. “The energy of the group is high. The optimism is high.”

If that’s to remain the case, the Nets need Bridges to continue to perform at a high level. He’s averaging a career-high 17.3 points per game and his scoring numbers have increased in each of his five seasons in the league.