No Kevin Durant, no problem for the Brooklyn Nets as they took care of business on Friday night. Kyrie Irving had arguably his best performance of the season as he led his team to a 117-106 victory over the Utah Jazz.

Irving finished with a season-high 48 points on 18-of-29 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds, six assists, four steals, and just one turnover in 39 minutes of play. Kyrie spoke out after the game as he sounded off on his heroics against the Jazz:

“Staying poised, doing the little things, and leading by example,” Irving said. “Whatever it takes to win. That's the objective here. With my teammates clicking on all cylinders, makes my job a lot easier. But when I'm leading from the front, it makes a big difference.”

Kevin Durant isn't expected to be back soon as he continues to rehab an MCL sprain. In the meantime, it's Kyrie Irving who has to do most of the heavy lifting for the Nets. Friday's performance was a perfect example of Kyrie “leading from the front,” like he said, and Brooklyn will need more of the same from him moving forward.

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Friday night was the Nets' first win since KD went down. They had suffered four straight losses, and the pressure was mounting on Kyrie. He stepped up in a major way on Friday and hopefully for the Nets, this marks the start of a forceful run of wins for them.

Friday's win against the Jazz was the second night of a back-to-back set for Brooklyn. They get Saturday off before heading over to the Bay Area to battle the defending champs Golden State Warriors as part of their current five-game road trip.