The Brooklyn Nets went into the nation's capital without their best player Kevin Durant being available to play. The Nets must get used to life without their MVP candidate, as Durant is out for at least a month recovering from an MCL sprain. In a surprise twist from the typical narrative, the Nets are actually lucky they'll have a pile of road games coming up. That means they'll at least have Kyrie Irving available to help James Harden on the road. That was the case Wednesday vs. Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards.

Kyrie Irving stormed out of the gate, dropping 22 points in the first half. The Nets ran up a big 16 point lead in large part because of his, well Kyrie things.

But the Wiz stormed back in the second half. This game became heated with a playoff type atmosphere.

Bradley Beal had 23 points, and 9 assists. A former Lakers forward, having a terrific season in his new home, Kyle Kuzma chipped in 16 points, including a monster triple with 36 seconds remaining. Kuzma's trey cut a Nets four point lead down to just one.

Kuzma would sound off after the game about a deflected ball a Nets coach touched during a crucial play. 

But LaMarcus Aldridge dropped 27 points, including the team's last 6, helping lock up a 119-118 road win. They're now 28-16 overall, a half game out of first place behind the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat, tied atop the East.

The team is now 3-2 in games Kyrie Irving has appeared in.

“Even coming into halftime, the wizards were very comfortable, I just knew it,” admitted Irving after the game. “They scored over 60 points, [in the 1st half] they were in a good rhythm, I know Brad [Beal] wasn't as aggressive in the fist half so I knew he was gonna come out firing in that 3rd quarter , 4th quarter, they were gonna go to their kill zones where they were gonna be very efficient,” said Irving, now with five games under his belt this season.

“Being in this game for two weeks now, or just being back feels great,” continued the seven-time All-Star. “But I'll feel a lot better once I put two solid halves together playing at a high level and playing at a good pace. Not getting to that fourth quarter and a few shots are short and I think my first two shots in the fourth quarter were airballs,” admitted Irving, hinting he still has room to grow in terms of his pace and conditioning.

Irving finished with 30 points, 7 dimes, and 3 rebounds. His running mate Harden totaled 18 points, 9 assists, and 7 rebounds. Harden was just 7 of 21 from the floor and 0 of 5 from beyond the arc. The Beard was not great in this one but still filled the box score.

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Patty Mills got hot, and connected on 5 of 7 looks from downtown, he added 17 points in a one point victory that was pretty heated at times.

After the clutch win, Irving was asked if he feels any added pressure now that Kevin Durant is out of the lineup.

“I like the pressure, I love pressure,” said Irving. “I think it brings out the best in me personally and then also I'm able to carry that energy with the team whether it be communicating with guys in short conversations on the floor, or off the floor, just trying to demand a responsibility from all of us, for myself first, but from of all of us that this isn't gonna be perfect it's not gonna ever look perfect this is just what we have, and we can't replace anybody that's out but what we can do is fill up the stat sheet… and we'll see where we are at the end of the game.”

The Nets travel to San Antonio to take on the Spurs tomorrow. They'll need to be a little more sound defensively if they want to beat a Gregg Popovich coached team in their own gym on the second night of a back-to-back. But if that puts some pressure on this group, at least that gets Irving's juices flowing. He's clearly embracing that challenge and grateful to be back.