Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving has had some spectacular performances in his career. In Friday’s 117-106 win over the Utah Jazz, Irving made sure that this game went differently than Thursday’s defeat at the hands of the Phoenix Suns.
Irving had 48 points on 18-of-29 shooting from the field and 8-of-15 shooting from behind the three-point line. Some of those points included some impressive finishes over the bigs of the Jazz and he collected 11 rebounds as well. Irving was all over the court as it was clear that he and the rest of the Nets took to heart what head coach Jacque Vaughn said about starting games better.
This is the first time that Brooklyn has won a game without injured superstar Kevin Durant playing this season and that has to be a relief for anyone that’s a fan of the Nets. Irving spoke during his postgame interview about how the Nets earned this win because of what they did well:
“We just limit our turnovers and we capitalize on their mistakes. And, we just stay poised. We talked about it yesterday as well. Seems like 18 hours ago, 20 hours ago or something like that, just about doing the little things, you know? When guys diving on the floor, we’re taking charges, that makes a world of difference for our team. And, just our preparation, just keep hammering home on these times that we get together as a team, and we need to come back and settle in. So, I felt like we did that tonight. Obviously, I made a few more shots than I did in the past few games. That makes a difference. But, I feel like we just played poised down the stretch and doing the little things throughout the game. We earned this win.”
Irving’s 48 points were the most that he’s scored in a game this season as were his eight three-pointers made.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01fv0185pfxtewh01r player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=]
[listicle id=50523]
[listicle id=50526]