SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe, just maybe the Nets are starting to figure out this surviving without Kevin Durant thing. 

After Kyrie Irving had said Sunday wouldn’t be a duel between himself and Stephen Curry, but a battle between Brooklyn and Golden State, he carried his Nets back into the game then trusted them to win it, a 120-116 come-from-behind victory over the defending champion Warriors at Chase Center. 

Irving had a game-high 38 points and nine assists, the last of which came on a go-ahead 3-pointer by Royce O’Neale with 28.5 seconds left in the game. It put the Nets up 118-116, and Irving closed it out at the line to ensure there would be no overtime. 

“The most important thing is not letting your confidence waiver. It’s easy to miss a few shots, get into a funk. We don’t want to have that, I don’t want to have that,” Irving said. “I told you guys I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to be the first option or the second option or the main one. This is a message for everyone at home, first option, second option, third option it don’t f—ing matter to me. 

“It doesn’t matter who has the ball in their hands as long as they’re being aggressive [and] it’s the best shot for our team. Objectively this team sport is to win basketball games, not identify one person to carry everybody every single night … it’s just a team attitude, team atmosphere and living with the results.” 

The results have been better lately. After dropping four straight after losing Kevin Durant to a sprained MCL on Jan. 8, the Nets (29-17) have now won back-to-back games, the latter one a serious gut-check. 

The Nets trailed by as much as 17, and were down 110-98 with 5:42 to play before they closed on a 22-6 run to snatch victory from defeat.

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They hit six of eight shots, and turned up the pressure on the defensive end, forcing Golden State into 1-for-9 shooting with three turnovers. 

“We just wanted to make them feel uncomfortable all night, especially in that fourth quarter,” Irving said. “We wanted to make it tough, seek out different matchups and come into this game with a sense of pride on the defensive end. We’ve got to make it tough. 

“Some nights we’re going have to really rely on our poise, really rely on our defensive pressure and let that lead us to wins. So it’s not going to look pretty, I’ve been saying it since the beginning of the season … but if we’re resilient and we take care of the defensive end we give ourselves a chance every game.” 

Stephen Curry had 26 points, seven assists and six rebounds for Golden State. But Irving ended up winning the war. 

“How can you not be a fan of basketball? This is this is a great game, unbelievable athletes, two of the premier athletes at their position, trying to get their team to win. So I think it brings out the best and all really competitive athletes,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “That’s one of the special things about this game, is being able to look across the guy that you compete against and try to win against him.” 

Irving got the win thanks to endgame defense, and a huge lift from Nic Claxton. 

The young center had career highs in points (24) and rebounds (15), and had three blocks to set a franchise record with 12 straight games of three or more. 

Klay Thompson hit a midrange pull-up jumper to make it 106-93, but the Nets held him to 4-for-17 shooting overall. 

It was still 110-100 when Claxton got whistled for a charge. Vaughn challenged the call and won, with a basket awarded to the Nets center and a foul whistled on Draymond Green. Claxton converted the and-one, then a layup moments later to pull the Nets within five. 

Irving got to the line to slice the deficit to 110-107, and then got hot in the waning moments. He hit O’Neale for the go-ahead bucket and the Nets didn’t look back. 

“Kyrie was getting to the basket, hitting tough shots,” O’Neale said. “In that moment he drove, two people doubled him and he found me. He [had] the confidence in me.”