NEW YORK — Kyrie Irving scored a season-high 54 points, making all 10 shots in the first half and 19 of 23 for the game, to lead the Brooklyn Nets to a 133-118 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Friday.
Irving’s previous season high was 50 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the season-opening 127-126 loss on Oct. 23. Irving is the first player in Nets franchise history to score 45 points in three games in a season.
Irving said his confidence picked up early. He was 5-of-5 from the floor in the first quarter and the second. He had 27 points at halftime.
Thoughts of Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash along with his daughter Gianna and seven others on Sunday, pushed Irving throughout the game.
“I hit a few shots in the first half. I had to keep it going and [use the] Kobe mentality, Mamba mentality,” Irving said. “[I had to] keep going, keep going, so it felt good, felt good.”
Irving shot 82.6% from the field, the sixth-best shooting percentage in a 50-point game in NBA history and the best since Michael Jordan shot 82.8% on Nov. 16, 1988, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. Only one other player has missed four shots or fewer in a 50-point game in NBA history: Wilt Chamberlain, who did it twice.
Spencer Dinwiddie had 20 points off the bench for the Nets, and Taurean Prince chipped in with 16. Jarrett Allen and Garrett Temple contributed 12 and 11, respectively.
The Nets never trailed in their second consecutive victory and their third in their past four games, with Irving playing the lead role. He scored 16 points in the first quarter on 6-of-6 shooting. He capped it by scoring five points in the final 4.9 seconds, including a buzzer-beating 3 from the right side, which gave the Nets a 73-57 lead.
Irving had help, as Dinwiddie had 15 and Prince added 11 in the opening 24 minutes.
One of Brooklyn’s two prized free-agent signings, along with Kevin Durant, Irving didn’t miss his first shot from the field until 1:24 into the third, a twisting fadeaway midrange jumper from the left side.
Chicago, which trailed by as much as 21, fell to 19-32. Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 22. Luke Kornet finished with 19. Tomas Satoransky had 15, and Thaddeus Young had 14. Chicago lost Kris Dunn for the game with what appeared to be a knee injury on the first possession.
The Bulls cut Brooklyn’s lead to 105-99 on Coby White‘s 3-pointer 1:17 into the fourth, but that was as close as they got. From that point, the Nets outscored Chicago 28-19.
Irving made two free throws with 3:50 left to set a season high as chants of “MVP! MVP!” rained down from the sellout crowd at Barclays Center. On the next possession, he knocked down a midrange jumper.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.