The Brooklyn Nets are taking care of business at the right time.

After defeating the Utah Jazz Sunday, the Nets have won four of their last five, bringing their magic number to clinch the Eastern Conference's sixth seed down to two wins. Brooklyn ranks seventh in the NBA in net rating during that span, scoring 118.6 points per game on 49/38/80 shooting splits while limiting opponents to 110 on 46.7 percent shooting from the field and 29.1 from three.

Mikal Bridges has led the offensive charge during the hot stretch. The breakout forward has scored 25-plus points in a career-best six straight games. Bridges ranks third in the NBA at 34.0 points per game on 49/47/92 splits over the last five games. He also just earned Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors thanks to his exploits over the last three games, which were all Nets victories.

The 26-year-old has become highly effective at drawing fouls as the Nets' go-to option, something he recently attributed to his time watching Devin Booker and Chris Paul, as well as frequently guarding the league's top scorers. Bridges is attempting 6.9 free throws per game during his time in Brooklyn, the 14th-most in the league. He's converted on 90.6 percent of those attempts, the NBAā€™s best percentage among 42 players attempting 5.1 or more per game during that span.

The high-level efficiency amid a dramatically increased workload has turned heads around the league. Prior to Sunday's win, Jazz head coach Will Hardy said scouting this new version of Bridges is an entirely different process than his Phoenix days:

ā€œYou have to really wipe away any prior notions you had about him,ā€ Hardy said. ā€œYou have to understand that heā€™s going to do things in tonightā€™s game that Iā€™ve never seen Mikal Bridges do live before because he hasnā€™t been in that situation. So thereā€™s plays that heā€™s making here in Brooklyn that some would say, ā€˜thatā€™s a tough shot, thatā€™s a tough play that we havenā€™t seen him make before.ā€™ But that doesnā€™t mean he canā€™t convert on those.

ā€œI do think you have to really try to wipe away what you thought of him before and just start fresh because there is something to be said about a new situation, new context, and obviously Mikalā€™s making the most of it.ā€

The Nets' high-quality shot diet during the recent run has largely been a product of Spencer Dinwiddie's facilitation. Dinwiddie continued his elite orchestration of Brooklyn's offense Sunday, dishing out a game-high 12 assists. The veteran led the NBA with 146 total assists (9.7 per game) in March, the second-most recorded by a Net in a month in over a decade (Deron Williams had 154 in Jan. 2012).

And Bridges offered high praise for his point guard's playmaking ability following the win over Utah:

ā€œHeā€™s just breaking defenses down. Heā€™s so skilled offensively and heā€™s quick so he gets past somebody and then he finds us,ā€ Bridges said. ā€œI know heā€™s thanking us but heā€™s the one getting in the paint, making the read, and getting us looks. Heā€™s reading the game and knowing when to be aggressive and score and when to pass. I think heā€™s doing a really good job honestly.ā€

Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton, the other half of Brooklyn's new-look core four, have both been steadying presences amid the recent success. Johnson has turned in his best stretch as a Net over the last five games, averaging 19.6 points on 57.1 percent shooting from the field and 44.8 percent from three.

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Claxton has continued the high-level two-way play that has become customary during his breakout season. The 23-year-old has anchored the Nets' defense, blocking 2.4 shots per game while averaging 13.8 points on 24-0f-31 (77.4 percent) shooting offensively. Claxton ranks second in the NBA in blocks per game (2.5) and field goal percentage (70.7) this season.

Despite their recent success, the Nets' last win was a stark reminder of their short time alongside one another. They led by as many as 23 points against the Jazz before a fourth-quarter scoring drought and uninspired defensive effort allowed Utah to fight back for a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer.

After the nail-biter win, Jacque Vaughn said there's one thing he's looking for from his team with the playoffs weeks away:

ā€œFor me, it's always gonna be the consistency part of it,ā€ Vaughn said. ā€œSo yes, they have told themselves how well they've played, the things that they've been able to do on both ends of the floor to be agitators, to dictate things, to play with pace, to create shots for each other, to make shots. They have total (belief) in themselves. So can we continue to do that on a nightly basis, on a quarter-by-quarter basis, on a possession-by-possession basis?ā€

The Nets can clinch the East's sixth seed with two wins in their last four games. Vaughn's squad will be back in action at Barclays Center Tuesday vs. Minnesota after which they'll travel to Detroit for a back-to-back before closing with home matchups against Orlando and Philadephia.