(Basketball news) The Brooklyn Nets got back to winning ways as they beat the Los Angeles Lakers 121-104. For the Nets, Kyrie Irving had 26 points, seven rebounds and six assists as Patty Mills and Cam Thomas added 21 points as they won their second straight and are 4-6 since Kevin Durant sprained a ligament in his right knee. Last time they won just five times in 21 games when Durant had sprained the other knee. For the Lakers, James, who is 117 points shy of passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA’s career scoring record, sat on the bench as Thomas Bryant had 18 points and nine rebounds while Russell Westbrook finished with 17 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. The 2017 NBA MVP moved past Gary Payton into 10th place on the career assists list. With this result the Nets improved their record to 31-19.

”It’s nothing but joy in my eyes when I see them get rewarded for the hard work they’ve put in,” Irving said. ”It makes my job a lot easier.”

”I think from a big-picture standpoint we’ve just worked out how to navigate the ship, I guess,” Mills said, ”and it definitely does feel a lot different than last year in that sense.”

”In the NBA, I never dreamt of being in this position, nor getting to the point to where I’m next to some of the greats,” Westbrook said, ”and I’m just truly grateful and thankful for an opportunity to keep playing at the highest level and I don’t take any of it for granted.”

The Golden State Warriors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 128-120. For the Warriors, Stephen Curry had 38 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds he made 8 of 14 3-pointers and 12 of 20 shots overall as Klay Thompson added 28 points and hit six 3s . For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 of his 31 points in the second half as Josh Giddey had 21 points and Jalen Williams added 19 points as OKC missed out on a chance to even its season record. Curry passed Wilt Chamberlain for most field goals in franchise history as this was the opening of  three matches away from home for the Warriors, who are now two games above .500.

”This was really a key game for us on the trip,” coach Steve Kerr said. ”To start out with a win puts us in a good position to get some rest tomorrow, prepare for Minnesota, go attack that game and see what happens. … So we needed this one tonight, and guys did a great job of winning and getting it. Now, we’ve got to get greedy and go get the next one.”

”We’ve kind of got to dictate terms from the jump and make teams play how we want to play,” Giddey said. ”It’s hard to beat a team like that going back and forth and trading baskets because they’ve got so many weapons.”

”I thought there was a little bit of a boogeyman there in the first quarter,” coach Mark Daigneault said. ”And then, you know, once we opened the closet and realized there’s no one there, then we started playing.”

Also read: NBA: Giannis drops 50 points against NOLA while Hornets stun the Heats