Led by Kyrie Irving’s 39 points, the Brooklyn Nets put all five starters in double figures in building a 20-point lead and holding off the New Orleans Pelicans for a 135-125 win at Barclays Center on Monday night.
Irving’s third 30-point game as a Net was also his seventh straight 20-point game to start his first season in Brooklyn. He shot 13-for-21 and had nine assists.
With the Pelicans having cut a 20-point third-quarter Brooklyn lead to two points with under five minutes to go, Jarrett Allen slammed home a Harris miss on a corner three and Irving skipped through the lane for a layup and a 125-119 lead. A Caris LeVert 3-pointer made it 128-121 with 3:06 to go.
With just under a minute remaining and the Nets up by five, Harris knocked down his fourth three of the game for a 133-125 lead.
LeVert had 23 points and seven rebounds for Brooklyn and Harris finished with 19. Allen posted a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Garrett Temple had 13 points and Taurean Prince had 12.
The Nets shot 53.3 percent overall.
Behind a 25-6 run, the Nets built a 19-point second-quarter lead and took a 67-50 lead into halftime.
Leading 33-27 after the first quarter, the Nets opened up the second quarter with a 5-0 burst that included a pair of Jordan dunks to push their lead to double-digits, 38-27. But New Orleans responded with 11 straight points to even the game midway through the quarter.
The Nets took off from there, starting with a Harris transition finish followed by an Irving 3-pointer. LeVert and Temple knocked down threes in the run. Irving dropped in a pair of pull-up mid-rangers, then fed Spencer Dinwiddie up ahead after a missed three by the Pelicans for a wide open dunk and a 63-44 Brooklyn lead.
The Nets shots 57.4 percent overall and 44.4 percent from 3-point range in the first half, and Irving’s twisty drive through the lane put Brooklyn up by 17 at the break, giving him 15 points for the first half, plus seven assists.
After the Nets stretched their lead to 20 early in the second half, the Pelicans closed within 12 midway through the third quarter, making eight of their first nine shots of the second half, including each of their first five 3-pointers. After New Orleans cut the Brooklyn lead to 89-80, Harris answered with a 3-pointer, but the Pelicans kept coming, shooting 68 percent in the quarter and making 8-of-10-3-pointers. With the Nets up by 10, New Orleans scored seven straight before Prince’s corner three sent the Nets into the fourth quarter with a 104-98 lead.
A Temple 3-pointer and Dinwiddie drive had Brooklyn back up 11 in the opening minutes of the quarter, but New Orleans steadily chipped away before Josh Hart’s layup off a Nets turnover brought the Pelicans within 121-119 with 4:43 to go.