The Nets weren’t great Tuesday night, but Kyrie Irving got on fire, they got fortunate, and that was enough to hand them control of their own destiny.

A huge night by Irving, a 118-105 win over Houston, and losses by all of their play-in competition bumped Brooklyn up from 10th in the Eastern Conference to eighth and gave them the knowledge that if they win out, they can finish seventh.

“Ohh,” Irving perked up when told after his 42-point outing. “Obviously we want to land in a better spot than we are now. And if other teams are helping us out, then I’m grateful for that. … This is a different scenario, this play-in tournament deal. It puts you in a position where you’ve got to rise your game up to the challenge.

“Getting a win and then seeing how the uncontrollable outcomes or the other games impact us, we’d rather be in the driver’s seat and sit comfortably and be able to control our own destiny.”

Irving, who shot just 36.2 percent in his previous five games, snapped out of his mini-slump. He attacked the rim, attacked the Rockets and lifted the Nets (41-38) to within two games of seventh-place Cleveland. They climbed to eighth in the East, thanks to the season-series tiebreaker with Atlanta, and edged a game ahead of Charlotte.

With just three games left — at the Knicks Wednesday, Cleveland Friday and Indiana Sunday — if the Nets win out, they’ll be guaranteed the seventh seed, and host a play-in game. They’d need just a lone win to clinch the playoffs, and have the safety blanket of double-elimination.

“I think it would be great. It would be great to be seventh. Better than eighth. Eighth better than ninth,” Steve Nash said. “At the same time I think there’s a balance to be struck here. We want to win all the games, we want to finish seventh, we want to have the play-in at home and an opportunity to go in on one game. … We’ve also got to balance that with our growth, with all the injuries, making sure guys can get through in one piece as possible.”

Kevin Durant had 18 points, Bruce Brown 15 and Cam Thomas finished with 13.

Irving had 11 quick points to spot the Nets to a 25-18 lead right out of the gate.

And even after they fell asleep and let the Rockets climb back into it — a running dunk by Jalen Green (30 points) knotting it at 32-all with 10:13 left in the half — they had no problem with Houston.

The Nets responded by reeling off 10 unanswered points, highlighted by a sequence that saw them — with a big frontcourt of little-used LaMarcus Aldridge, Nic Claxton and Durant playing together — crash the boards for four consecutive offensive rebounds, capped by a technical and an Irving free throw.

That made it 39-32, and Brown’s 3-pointer on the ensuing possession padded the cushion to double figures.

The Nets went into the locker room up 64-47 thanks to 22 points from Irving. It was their biggest halftime lead at home since Jan. 15 versus New Orleans, after holding the Rockets to 37.7 percent shooting and 4 of 22 from deep.

The Nets led by 21 in the third quarter and held off a big Houston rally. Kevin Porter Jr. (36 points) pulled the Rockets within 90-84, but no closer as Irving stemmed the tide with a midrange jumper and improved defense.

“It wasn’t a great performance. I don’t think anyone in the locker room feels like it was a great performance,” Nash said. “Think we gave up too many offensive rebounds, lost too many loose balls. It is a trickier team to play than the record.

“We found a way. We weathered some tricky patches. Probably should have kept the lead at 20 in the second half but they went on I think a 17-0 run. The progress opportunity is [Wednesday] night.”