Brooklyn Nets Spencer Dinwiddie
(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

The Brooklyn Nets are one of the hottest teams in the NBA and they secured a win when they didn’t play their best—a sign of a good team.

The Brooklyn Nets continue their winning ways with another victory in Barclays Center, their seventh straight win at home. It wasn’t easy. This game featured 17 ties and 15 lead changes. It was truly a back-and-forth affair.

This isn’t necessarily surprising considering the Nets and Magic battled to the final seconds on Friday night in Orlando, a game the Nets won 117-115.

The Magic and the Nets play three times in the span of a few weeks and this victory gives the Nets the edge with wins in the first two matchups. The Magic will likely slide out of the playoff race as the season progresses, but there’s a small chance that this tiebreaker will be significant at the end of the season.

Wednesday’s win came down to the final seconds and the Nets needed some clutch free throws from D’Angelo Russell to put the game away. Brooklyn didn’t play their best game, but good teams can grind out victories when they are less than their best.

Russell built on his already strong All-Star campaign with 24 points, seven rebounds, and 10 assists. He only shot 9-for-21 from the floor, but Russell played within himself and did a nice job facilitating for his teammates.

Spencer Dinwiddie carried the scoring load with 29 points off the bench. He didn’t shoot well from beyond the arc (2-for-8), but he diced up the Orlando defense nearly every time he drove to the basket.

DeMarre Carroll poured in 19 points off the bench. Furthermore, the Brooklyn bench outscored the Orlando bench 52-35. Once again, Brooklyn’s depth is the difference in a close game.

The Nets continue their torrid streak with their fifth-straight win and 18th in 23 games. Head coach Kenny Atkinson is leading his squad to a complete turnaround after an eight-game losing streak appeared to put the season in jeopardy.

The Nets can’t let up now. They have a brutal schedule down the stretch so they need to continue to ride this hot streak if they want to secure a playoff spot. As well as things are going right now, the season will end with matchups against playoff team after playoff team.

The Nets will look for their sixth-straight victory on Friday when they welcome their crosstown rival to Brooklyn. The New York Knicks nearly took down James Harden and the Houston Rockets on Wednesday. That being said, the Knickerbockers are mired in a remarkably bad stretch of play. The Knicks have lost their last seven and 22 of their last 25.

The two teams from New York are heading in different directions and Brooklyn would love to take advantage of the Knicks. The Nets hold a 2-1 advantage in the season series and will look to win the season series for the first time since the 2014-15 season.

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Danny Small
NY/NJ hoops reporter (NBA/NCAA) & sports betting writer for XL Media. Never had the makings of a varsity athlete.

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