Kyrie Irving drops 36 points in Brooklyn return to lead Mavericks over Nets

If Nets fans haven’t missed Kyrie Irving since his contentious departure last season, they might be missing his production after watching his return to Barclays Center on Tuesday night, on the one-year anniversary of his trade.

The controversial star, who forced a trade out of Brooklyn after 3 ¹/₂ seasons, heard a mix of boos and cheers during pregame introductions then throughout his 36-point effort, as his Mavericks delivered a 119-107 defeat to his former squad.

Unlike what Kevin Durant received almost a week ago, there was no tribute video.

As a mix of cheers and jeers filled the arena during the starting lineups announcement, Irving waved at the crowd as he would old friends.

One thing was clear on Irving’s end once he stepped on the court: He wanted to send a message to Brooklyn through his play, and he did.

“I felt like I was home tonight,” Irving said after the win. “Getting here early, warming up, getting a good sense of the rims, the atmosphere for what it was going to be like. Just mentally prepare myself for the game. Just let the game come to me and let the basketball gods do the rest.

“Come in with an open heart, open mind to see a lot of my friends and family that I’ve made here and put on a great show for them.”

Irving’s trade request last season continued the unraveling of the Big 3 — James Harden had already been dealt the previous year and after Irving was traded, Durant soon followed, dissolving what was supposed to be a championship core that won just one playoff series together.

“I don’t think about it too often now,” Irving said of his time in Brooklyn. “Pretty much at peace with what happened and spending time here, I wish a lot of the guys well. A lot of the people I’ve gotten a chance to get to know, we have relationships that extend off the basketball court, and that’s all I can ask for. So, again, I felt like I was at home, whether I was playing the game or not. Got to see a lot of smiles, got to make some kids really happy. That’s what the job’s about.”

He added he “doesn’t care” how his time in Brooklyn is remembered, because everyone has their own opinion of how things began to crumble.

“I’m just gonna let it run its course, and hopefully in the next few years it’s done,” he said.

The Nets (20-30) had a late surge Tuesday but didn’t have quite enough juice to complete the rally, with four of their rotation players missing — Cam Johnson (left adductor tightness), Lonnie Walker IV (left hamstring tightness), Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle sprain), and Day’Ron Sharpe (left knee hyperextension) — and Ben Simmons on a minutes restriction.

They cut a 23-point lead to nine with less than eight minutes left, after Mikal Bridges and Royce O’Neal combined for three 3-pointers.

Bridges led the Nets with 28 points, and Cam Thomas had 16 with a career-high eight assists.

O’Neale added 18 and Nic Claxton, who was called for a flagrant foul for the second straight game, scored nine points.

But Irving later countered with back-to-back 3s to push the lead back to 113-101 with 4:23 left.

Unlike Monday against the Warriors, the Nets weren’t brutally outrebounded nor were they pounded in the paint.

Their shooting simply couldn’t keep up with Irving andMavs star Luka Doncic, who had a double-double with 35 points and 18 rebounds.

The Nets shot 45.1 percent to the Mavericks’ 50 percent.

“It’s tough. Ky has the extreme ability to shot-make versus anyone,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. “I thought he had some timely buckets for that group, and we had different coverages throughout the course of the night. They’re a team that is geared towards picking on matchups, which they were able to do for majority of the night..”

With a limited Simmons, Claxton carried more of a load against Doncic, and registered five blocks and 11 rebounds.

The third quarter’s highlight was an alley-oop dunk from Irving, who went backdoor behind Bridges and wound up with the assist from Josh Green.

“Perfect pass, man. Shoutout to Josh Green, perfect pass. He had the belief in me. A lot of my teammates didn’t think that I could catch lobs, but told them to look at my summer highlights,” Irving said with a laugh. “It felt good to get up there and convert that dunk. It’s not too often you see me dunk, so I’m grateful for that.”

Due to the Nets injuries, Jalen Wilson, Trendon Watford, and Noah Clowney saw playing time. Wilson played 18 minutes and scored 10 points, shooting 3-for-7 from the field.

“Extremely pleased that our guys showed some resiliency and some fight.” Vaughn said. “Overall, I give our guys a lot of credit, it’s a really good team. And for Ky and Luca to shoot high-percentage tonight and for us to still be in the game is credit to our guys. “

At the half, Irving had 21 points and the booing started to subside.

The Nets shot 38.3 percent from the field on the way to an 18-point halftime deficit, while the Mavs made 57.5 percent of their shots.

It was the second time in the past week the Nets saw one of their former Big 3 come to Barclays and humble them, losing to Durant and the Suns, 136-120, last Wednesday.