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Kyrie Irving made his return to the lineup a winning one — just barely.
After missing the Nets’ recent road trip for family reasons, Irving came back and looked like he never missed a beat. He and James Harden led the Nets to a 112-107 escape against league-worst Minnesota before a crowd 1,732 at Barclays Center on Monday.
Harden (38 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds) notched his 12th triple-double already as a Net, tying the team record set by Jason Kidd in 2006-07 and again in 2007-08. And Irving, who’d been out the prior three games, added 27 points and seven boards.
The Nets (32-15) pulled within half a game of idle Philadelphia for first place in the Eastern Conference, and moved a full two games clear of pursuing Milwaukee pending the Bucks’ tilt in Los Angeles against the Clippers later Monday night. But they’re trying to tune out the outside talk.
“I think that’s all in-house. Most important thing is our group and our environment and investing in that every day,” coach Steve Nash said. “The noise is the noise. Some of that is accurate, but most of it is not, and we can’t be influenced by that stuff that people that aren’t in the room every day with us and see what we see and discuss what we discuss and try to put the pieces together to be successful.
“That’s an internal thing so we just invest in that every day and try to make sure our players feel a real sense of identity, pride, and hope to improve every day and if we provide that for them in this environment, they’re going to get better, we’re going to collectively grow and give ourselves a chance to be the best possible team we can be and then we’ll see if that’s good enough.”
The Nets saw a 10-point lead with 1:55 left disappear, allowing nine unanswered points. But they got the defensive stand they needed in forcing a miss from Anthony Edwards, and a huge Bruce Brown defensive rebound with 16 seconds to play. Harden iced it at the line.
Minnesota star center Karl-Anthony Towns came into Monday averaging 29.3 points over his prior seven games, and got 31 despite incessant double teams, Joe Harris or Brown digging to get the ball out of his hands.
The Nets have the NBA’s best record since Feb. 10, 18-3 since their epiphany after a humbling loss in Detroit. And they’ve done that despite Kevin Durant playing just once and Irving missing six games due to injuries or personal reasons.
This was a game that had seemed well in hand, and got closer than it needed to be.
The Nets led 30-20 with 4:08 remaining in the first quarter, and they eventually padded that cushion to 44-27 when Harden found Jeff Green for a 3-pointer early in the second.
After the break, the Nets had the air of a complacent team and let the game get far tighter than it should’ve been. They saw that lead cut to four when Jaden McDaniels hung and hit to make it 70-66 with seven minutes to play in the third quarter.
It was still 78-74 before Irving hit a 20-foot pull-up during a 12-3 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters. Harden’s stepback 3-pointer gave the Nets a 90-77 edge.
The Nets led 108-98 after an Irving pull-up with 2:07 to play, but surrendered a 9-0 run. Edwards got fouled on a breakaway for a chance to tie it with 58 seconds left. His free throw rolled off the rim, but after Irving missed a stepback the Timberwolves got the rebound and Brooklyn needed a stop.
They got it when Edwards missed an 8-foot pull-up with 20 seconds left, and Brown hustled down the rebound. Harden closed out the game.
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