Brooklyn coach Steve Nash says the Nets cannot afford to relax in defense ahead of the visit of defending champions Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.
The Nets are 5/6 to win in the Money Line and Milwaukee can be backed at 1/1.
Pistons make Nets work hard
Brooklyn return to action after claiming a hard-fought 130-123 win over Detroit Pistons on Tuesday.
The Nets were expected to claim a comfortable win over a team who have been eliminated from playoff contention for some time but they had to fight back from a six-point deficit in the third quarter and were briefly behind in the fourth.
"It comes down to how much edge we play with. I think when we play with edge, we're a much better team defensively," said Nash, via Sportsnaut.
"When we take our foot off the gas a little bit, we're not good enough to just roll out there and shut people down."
Playoff place to aim at
The Nets will almost certainly have to come through the play-in tournament to reach the playoffs as they are four games behind Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls in fifth and sixth, the final automatic playoff places in the East, with just six regular season games remaining.
Brooklyn are fighting to stay ahead of Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets as their path towards the playoffs would be more straightforward if they finish either seventh or eighth, but they face a tough game against the Bucks on Thursday.
The Bucks are still in with a chance of claiming the top seed in the East and have won 11 of their last 14 games, although Brooklyn did claim a 126-123 victory when these two teams last met in Milwaukee at the end of February.
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