A week-and-a-half ago, the Nets were stuck in their worst losing skid in a year, and had stumbled all the way into the play-in.
Now?
The Nets are getting right at just the right time — and are on the verge of clinching the sixth and final guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Nets have won three straight — and four of five — coming into Tuesday’s tilt against visiting Minnesota.
With four games left on their schedule, their magic number to clinch was two, with Miami simultaneously facing the Pistons.
A Nets win and Heat loss would seal the sixth seed for Brooklyn.
“Yeah, we know where we are,” admitted center Nic Claxton. “We know every game is extremely important. So just taking it game by game.”
After a season-worst five-game slump, the Nets sat seventh in the East on March 24, staring at the prospect of the play-in.
But they’ve won four of five since and could conceivably wrap up a playoff berth with help Tuesday.
“We just can’t have any type of letup,” Claxton said. “[Sunday] was a good lesson for us, almost losing the game the way we did. At this point in the season most teams are playing for something, whether it’s a playoff spot, whether it’s a certain seed. So just knowing that going into the game and bringing that intensity from the jump.”
The Nets know they’ll be facing the saltiest possible version of Minnesota, after the Timberwolves blew a 12-point second-half lead to Portland.
The Trail Blazers — minus four starters, including Damian Lillard — had been 19 ½-point underdogs, making it the biggest NBA upset in 30 years.
“This week becomes very interesting just because Minnesota is coming in to play for a lot. A game that’s going to take a lot for us to play well and to beat those dudes,” Vaughn said.
“We’re going to take that game very seriously, line up just like we did [Sunday], our starters almost played 20 minutes in the first half, so we’ll take that same approach. We’ll try to win a basketball game, we’ll deal with the repercussions after that. But we’re going to try to win a basketball game.”
Swingman Mikal Bridges was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played March 27 through April 2.
The honor was the first of his career.
Bridges led the Nets to a 3-0 week, averaging 33.0 points (third in the East), 5.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.3 steals.
He shot 50.0 percent from the field, 45.5 percent from deep and 88.5 percent from the stripe.
Since joining the Nets in the Kyrie Irving trade, Spencer Dinwiddie has 200 assists. The only players in the league who have more are Trae Young (226) and Chris Paul (213).