Mavericks 113, Nets 109: Kyrie Irving Scores 45 in Brooklyn Loss

Fifth 40-point game of the season for Irving, who shoots 17-for-31

Kyrie Irving rang up his fifth 40-point game of the season, but the Brooklyn Nets faltered in the fourth quarter of a 113-109 loss to the Mavericks in Dallas on Thursday night.

In scoring 13 of the Nets’ final 17 points, Irving finished with a season-high 45 points on 17-of-31 shooting, including 7-of-13 from 3-point range, with five rebounds, four assists, three steals, and two blocks. Irving now has eight 40-point games as a Net, tied for the second-most in franchise history.

But the Mavericks shot 60 percent in the fourth quarter to quickly erase a 90-86 Nets lead and then eventually hold on for the win.

“Great individual performance, but like I said and I’ve said it throughout my career, just throw that one away,” said Irving. “It’s one of those performances, great, but it’s about us. It’s about that win column and it’s about doing things that we can carry on to the next game to find that consistency. Scored a bunch of points in my career — empty points — and right now I just want to score when it matters and do what’s needed for us to be successful as a team. Whatever that takes — if it means 45 tonight in terms of getting a win, then great. If it means getting 12 points, only shooting nine times, eight times and we get the win still, same emotion, same happiness.”

It was the fourth straight loss for the Nets, who are now just a half-game ahead of Milwaukee (42-24) for second place in the Eastern Conference, with the Bucks holding a tiebreaker after taking the season series over Brooklyn with two wins earlier this week. The Nets have two games left on their five-game road trip, at Denver and Chicago.

“It’s about time we got tested in terms of just having to think the game on a different level, knowing that teams are shaping up for the playoffs,” said Irving. “And we’ve done our best to make sure that we’re ready to play, but now we got to think the game going up against some of these good teams — especially on the road. I mean, it’s inevitable in terms of going into other people’s home floors. They know the rims well, they know the courts well. I mean, everybody feels comfortable in their home. So we just got to be aware of that. I think these last few games have proven that. It is tough to win on the road when you’re making mistakes and turning the ball over and you know, sometimes throughout the possessions in a game you’re not playing with the resolve you’d want. But stuff happens but I think it’s good we have those tests now, those challenges, you know. It’s been too easy at times. So, it’s good.”

A 13-2 Dallas run turned Brooklyn’s four-point fourth-quarter lead into a 99-92 deficit with just under six minutes to go.

Irving got Brooklyn back on the board, and his 3-pointer had the Nets within 101-97 with 4:43 remaining, but the Nets got only a short Kevin Durant jumper over the next 3:30 until Irving finished a drive and converted a three-point play to make it 106-102 with 1:15 to go. Two Irving free throws again had the Nets within four with 47.7 seconds left, but Jalen Brunson’s slashing layup put Dallas back up by six with 32.6 seconds left.

With Dallas up 112-104, Irving hit another 3-pointer and after a Nets steal, Jeff Green hit two free throws with 6.7 seconds left to bring Brooklyn within 112-109.

Durant scored 20 points with nine rebounds, Green scored 11, and Blake Griffin and Bruce Brown had 10 apiece. Griffin added 10 rebounds for his first double-double as a Net.

Dallas jumped out to an early 19-11 lead and led by as many as 10 points in the first quarter before taking a 37-32 lead into the second quarter.

It took a few minutes for the Nets to get on track after they missed their first six shots of the second quarter. From there, though, they made seven of their next 11 shots to even the game at 53. Irving’s drive put the Nets up 62-60 before the Mavericks scored the half’s final three points.

Irving and Durant combined for 25 of Brooklyn’s 30 second-quarter points and assisted on the only other two field goals — both by Brown — accounting for every point in the quarter except for a Green free throw. In scoring 25 first-half points, Irving made 10-of-14 shots — including 4-of-6 3-pointers.

The Nets held the Mavericks without a point for the first 4:30 of the second half — Dallas missed its first nine shots — but only managed to go up 68-63 after threes from Irving and Joe Harris. There was no margin bigger than four points the rest of the quarter as the Nets and Mavericks traded baskets. With Dallas up 82-78, Green hit a 3-pointer and Mike James knocked down a long jumper with 2.8 seconds left in the quarter to put Brooklyn up 83-82 going into the fourth quarter. The Nets limited the Mavericks to 19 points and 6-for-21 shooting in the third quarter.

But Dallas found its shot in the fourth quarter and jumped out in front, taking a 99-92 lead on a Dorian Finney-Smith 3-pointer with 5:55 remaining.

“I thought we turned it over a little bit early in the fourth,” said Nets head coach Steve Nash. “But a part of it is missing shots tonight. So, we make shots we normally make, we get to our spots, and maybe it’s a different outcome. But then that always leads me to: What can we control? So you always look at your mistakes, execution on both ends. Defensively made probably too many errors; if you’re not going to shoot the ball as well as we normally do, and some of those errors costs us.”