Kyrie Irving scores 54 points to lead Nets past Bulls

Kyrie Irving began his week in deep emotional pain after learning that friend and mentor Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter crash Sunday. Irving left Madison Square Garden before that night’s game against the Knicks, unable to play through his grief.

But he went from that low to the high of Friday night, when he shot so well that he found himself in historic company.

Irving shot 19-for-23 and scored 54 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, to lead the Nets to a 133-118 win over the Chicago Bulls at Barclays Center.

“It feels incredible,” he said after the Nets (21-26) improved to 3-1 in their stretch of seven games against sub.-500 teams and moved up to seventh in the Eastern Conference. “But when you know that you have a game in 18 hours . . . you just want to carry that over to the next game.”

That’s in Washington on Saturday night. Irving will arrive as one of three players in NBA history to have shot at least 82.6% from the floor and scored at least 50 points, joining Wilt Chamberlain (four times) and Michael Jordan (once).

“I’m grateful to be on the list,” said Irving, who accomplished his feat in 32 minutes of action and shot 10-for-10 in the first half before missing his first third-quarter attempt.

While he enjoyed the night, coping with Bryant’s death remains difficult. “Just picking up the pieces that were left,’’ he said. “It’s still hard. Everyone is still grieving . . . Just trying to put days together. Do the best you can. But really it’s the collective environment that gives me energy.”

The Bulls (19-32) fell behind 57-36 in the second quarter. They still faced a 15-point deficit when Irving hit a layup with 3:47 left in the third quarter.

After Chicago cut its deficit to six early in the fourth quarter, Spencer Dinwiddie (20 points) responded with a reverse layup. Then Irving took over, scoring the Nets’ next 10 points — jumper, drive, three-pointer, three-point play. They had a 117-103 lead with 7:43 left.

When he swished a three from the right side, it gave him a season high-tying 50 and it gave the Nets a 123-106 lead.

“Well, when you’re that hot, you expect a guy to come down like it always usually happens,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He never came down.”

Irving came up with 16 points in the first quarter as the Nets took a 35-23 lead. They moved ahead by 21 in the second quarter before the Bulls chipped it to 11. Irving then scored five points in the final 4.9 seconds of the half. He hit a layup, then swiped the ball from Tomas Satoransky at midcourt and nailed a long three at the buzzer for a 73-57 lead.

“He got into a groove, and sometimes it’s hard to break the guy in a groove,” Chicago coach Jim Boylen said,

Irving shot 7-for-9 from three-point range and finished three points shy of his career high and Deron Williams’ Nets single-game record. But Irving set a Nets record with his second game scoring at least 50.

“Hometown kid is coming for the records,” Irving said. “I think more importantly, I’m just grateful for all the Nets greats that came before me and cementing what this Nets organization meant to me as a child, a kid to have a dream of coming back home and doing what I’m doing now.”