The Nets’ first four games were the Kyrie Irving Show, and included three disappointing losses. But Friday was an ensemble cast, and by far their best performance of the season.

The Nets got balanced offense, stout defense, and a 123-116 come-from-behind victory over the high-scoring Rockets. They showed a Barclays Center sellout crowd of 17,732 they can still win a game on Brooklyn grit.

“Against an explosive offensive team, our defense kept us alive,” Kenny Atkinson said. “A lot of guys played well. That’s what we need going forward. We can’t rely on Kyrie every night to be Superman. He was good, but we need other guys in a supporting role.”

It was about time. James Harden — the only player above Irving on the NBA scoring chart — poured in a game-high 36. But Irving (22 points, 10 assists) gladly let him win that fight while he won the war, finally getting help on both ends from his teammates.

“We had some tough losses over the first four games,” Irving said. “We had a choice where we could come into practice and be angry at each other or panic or do something like that.

“For us, we’re still taking time to develop, gel as a team. That’s just the most important thing. Obviously we’re invested … it’s about us having each other’s backs.”

Taurean Prince had a team-high 27 points and career-high 12 rebounds, while Caris LeVert added 25 points. Irving, Joe Harris and Garrett Temple all cracked double-figures, while the Nets held Houston to 41.4 percent shooting, and just 12-of-48 from deep.

“We relied on our compete-level,” Atkinson said. “I don’t think it was a beautiful orchestra, a lot of clings and clangs and all that stuff.”

Early on it sounded worse than a five-year-old’s first music lesson.

After the Nets jumped ahead 23-15 on a Prince 3, they promptly fell into abysmal disarray and coughed up an 18-1 run. They had committed 11 turnovers less than a minute into the second quarter, and trailed 35-24 after a fadeaway by Russell Westbrook (27 points, eight assists, seven boards).

“I’ve never quite seen that to that degree where one guy is zigging while the other guy is zagging. And one guy cuts and we throw it and he doesn’t cut,” Atkinson said. “We’ve got to figure it out, because our defense bailed us out.”

And won it for them.

The Nets stormed back with a 29-10 run to seize a lead they never surrendered. They only had 12 turnovers the final 35 ½ minutes, eventually leading by as much as 15.

Temple not only provided grit and steel, but at least slowed Harden. LeVert started getting hot and getting into the lane. And the Nets played defense like they haven’t at any point so far this season.

“Just us getting used to each other, knowing what we wanted to do, communicating, obviously honoring what other guys say, not trying to take on too much by ourselves, doing it in a unit form,” Prince said.

By the time LeVert hit a driving floater with 1:22 left in the half, Brooklyn had blitzed its way to a 59-55 edge. They led by two going into the break.

The Nets kept up the defensive pressure in the third, when they held Harden and Westbrook to nine points on 3-of-13 shooting. They padded their cushion to 93-78 on Temple’s straight-on 3.

Their hustle was epitomized by Harris colliding with Danuel House Jr., going full speed and diving on the floor for a loose ball like a linebacker going for a fourth-quarter fumble.

Harden pulled the Rockets within 109-103, and House got them within 111-106 on a 3 with 3:50 left.

But Prince answered with a 3 of his own to make it 114-106 with two minutes to play, and Irving’s 3 iced it at 117-108 with 55.9 seconds left in regulation. The Nets — 0-2 in overtime — made sure there was no OT.