The Brooklyn Nets don't care too much if not every game they win is pretty. At times in this one, a 130-123 win over the bottom-dwelling Detroit Pistons, they struggled to get stops on defense. And that's a theme here this year. As head coach Steve Nash said after the game, this team simply isn't good enough to take their collective feet off the gas defensively. But they they buy in, and play D with continuity, then they can get out in transition and that's when they're devastating.

Now at 40-36, they're one game up on the team that most recently beat them, the Charlotte Hornets. Brooklyn sits in 8th place and that's significant because if the season were to end that way, they'd only need to win one game in order to make the post-season, and even better, they wouldn't be gone fishing with a single loss. That fate is what happens to the loser of the 9th vs. 10th matchup during the Play-In. The loser of the 7th vs. 8th matchup gets another shot.

But the Nets will tell you they're more focused on playing their best basketball now that they're finally getting healthy (and available) more so than the standings.

So you might think allowing 123 to a team that's just 20-55 would upset them. And maybe it does. But Kevin Durant didn't share that after the win. KD finished with a game high 41 points, to go with 11 boards, 5 assists, 3 blocks (!) and a steal.

If he never got injured, he might be the front-runner for MVP right now.

But Durant pushed back on the idea the team might be dissatisfied giving up so many points to the Pistons.

“What you mean a team like Detroit?” he asked. “I mean they been playing solid the last two weeks though… they still got pros over there and tonight they made shots,” Nets superstar Kevin Durant said.

At one point the Nets actually trailed by 12 to Cade Cunningham and the Pistons. The first overall pick in 2021 finished with a red-hot 34 points and six dimes, knocking down 5 of 11 from deep. He's turning into some heck of a player already:

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And the Nets star wasn't done showing respect to the Motor City young guns.

What impressed him most about the Pistons young core?

“When you got a 6-7 point guard, I mean, s–t, it's a good start, y'know?” Durant said, drawing a laugh from his podium-mate, Kyrie Irving. Irving wrapped up his second home game and looked a lot more at-ease and comfortable than he did in his 2022 debut Sunday. Or maybe he'd finally just had a good night's rest after that back-to-back starting in Miami.

Irving struggled with some fatigue and perhaps some jitters last weekend shooting a very unKyrie like 6 of 22. He finished with 24 points and 4 assists, drilling 4 triples Tuesday.

“Somebody that can wreck a whole defensive game plan,” Durant continued, praising Cunningham. “With his size, his talent, his skill, so it's a great start. And then you go down the line Saddiq Bey and Marvin Bagley, Jerami Grant, and Isaiah Stewart, they got length and toughness down the line. And with a great coaching staff [led by former Coach Of the Year with the Toronto Raptors, Dwane Casey] that's gonna get the best out their players. I could see this team being something, force to be reckoned with in the future.”

Very very high praise from perhaps the game's greatest talent. Pistons fans already knew Cade was the real deal. But to hear Durant have that to say about him and also several of his young and veteran teammates, it's some extra exciting validation. Coach Dwane Casey will be thrilled to hear this one as well.

The Nets have a true test next game when they'll host Giannis Antetokounmpo and the reigning champs the Milwaukee Bucks. Once upon a time, The Deer had a bright future. But they became a force to be reckoned with as soon as The Greek Freak vaulted from promising talent to league MVP in just a couple years. We'll see what type of leap Cunningham has.