Warriors looking forward to road trip, beginning against redhot Celtics.

Irving scores 25 in return with Warriors up next; Spurs roll

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Kyrie Irving returned to the lineup and scored 25 points while wearing a mask, and the Boston Celtics beat the Brooklyn Nets 109-102 on Tuesday night for their 13th straight victory.

The Celtics remained unbeaten since an 0-2 start heading into their showdown Thursday in Boston against the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

“It’s definitely an incredible streak we’re on, and now comes the whole media frenzy of will the streak end, and what’s going to happen on Thursday and the Golden State Warriors coming to Boston,” Irving said. “So I’m looking forward to all that hoopla.”

Marcus Morris added 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Jayson Tatum scored 19 points for the Celtics.

Irving missed one game with a minor facial fracture after he was hit by teammate Aron Baynes on Friday. He fiddled with the mask frequently, but it didn’t seem to affect his play much. He made a jumper with 3:40 left after the Nets had closed within four points and drove for another basket about 35 seconds later.

Boston then finally put it away with Jaylen Brown’s alley-oop feed to Tatum before Irving hit two free throws to make it 106-96.

Joe Harris scored 19 points for the Nets, who are without leading scorer D’Angelo Russell because of a bruised left knee.

Irving scored 41 points in a loss at New York on Dec. 15, 2012, while with Cleveland when he had to wear a mask.

SPURS 97, MAVERICKS 91 >> LaMarcus Aldridge scored a season-high 32 points as San Antonio beat Dallas. Gregg Popovich became the fastest NBA coach to 500 road wins. He got there in 835 away games, 41 fewer than Pat Riley. Rookie Dennis Smith Jr. led Dallas with a season-high 27 points. RAPTORS 129, ROCKETS 113 >> DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points, and Toronto built a big lead in the first half and held on. James Harden had 38 points and made 19 of 19 foul shots for the Rockets, who had a six-game winning streak snapped.