The Brooklyn Nets came into Friday night on a league-best seven-game winning streak and winners of 14 of their last 17. Despite that, the Nets had still not been mentioned in the inner circle of contenders.

That had largely been due to a dysfunctional start to the season and a soft schedule during the recent hot streak. Just 3 of Brooklyn's 14 wins during the span had come over teams that are currently above .500. Two of those were against Portland and Memphis with Damian Lillard, Ja Morant and Desmond Bane all sidelined.

That narrative changed Friday.

Brooklyn dominated the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks from start to finish to claim a 118-100 win. The Nets received contributions across the board during a high-level two-way performance. Jacque Vaughn's squad held Milwaukee to 37 of 84 (44.0 percent) shooting while forcing 18 turnovers that led to a 24-13 fastbreak point advantage.

Giannis Antetokounmpo accounted for seven of those turnovers while scoring 26 points. The Greek Freak has had his way with the undersized, guard-heavy Nets in recent seasons. However, this year's team boasts three versatile defenders in Ben Simmons, Nic Claxton and Kevin Durant to throw at Antetokounmpo, something head coach Jacque Vaughn credited when speaking on his team's defensive success Friday.

“Being able to have multiple bodies like we talked about around Giannis, (forced) seven turnovers for him,” Vaughn said. “For us to have more fast break points than them when transition is huge for their game, that meant we were playing a pretty high-level pace and then we were keeping them in the halfcourt. A really good effort from our guys and really focused.”

The Nets possess a noticeably longer and more athletic rotation than years past with the additions of Simmons, Royce O'Neale, T.J. Warren and Yuta Watanabe. Brooklyn's eight-man rotation Friday had an average height of 6'7″ and an average wingspan of 6'10”. Kyrie Irving alluded to the added size and versatility when speaking about slowing down Milwaukee.

“Absolutely” Irving responded when asked if he feels the added size around him. “I mean, I can't necessarily guard everybody on the court in terms of the perimeter, so when KD can guard Jrue, I can guard Jevon Carter. Royce can guard Giannis or Ben can guard Giannis. I think our lineup is so interchangeable that it's a positive for us. It's a strength of ours.”

“You have two of the top guys guarding isos in Nic and KD, I mean, it makes a huge difference out there. They're leading the league in guarding ISOs, so anytime people are going at them, we know that we had a great chance to make them miss.”

Offensively, it was a complete team effort for Brooklyn with six players scoring 12 points or more. Durant led the way with 24 points on 9 of 17 shooting. The fourth-year Net has firmly pushed himself into the MVP conversation during Brooklyn's hot stretch, averaging 31.2 points on 61.7 percent shooting from the field and 41.1 percent from three over his last 12 games.

Durant said his team was aware of the implications of the matchup with the league-leading Bucks.

“We respect Milwaukee and understand how dominant they've been this season, Durant said. “We understand everybody's watching this game, everybody came to this game. (We) looked at it just as a big regular season game and I think we tried to approach it that way.”

“Those guys play extremely hard every night, play physical every night and we just tried to match that,” he continued. “They play a playoff-style basketball game every game so it was on us to come out and match it and play our brand as well. We've been trying to stay at that level as much as we can.”

Royce O'Neale provided a significant lift with his three-point shooting for the third-consecutive game. O'Neale scored 17 points on 5 of 8 shooting from deep. The wing is now 12 of 16 from three over Brooklyn's last three games.

This comes after O'Neale had shot just 15 of 57 (26.3 percent) from the field and 10 of 38 (26.3 percent) from three in eight games before Sunday's win over Detroit. The offseason acquisition ranked second in the league in minutes before missing his first two games of the season for rest last week.

“Yeah, I should continue to apologize to him, take him out to dinner,” Vaughn joked of O'Neale's early minutes load postgame. “That was one me playing him too many minutes but it was because I love what he does… I think that (two games off) really got him in a position mentally and physically where he was able to reload. Now you see the value that he brings to us on both ends of the floor, so I take the blame for running him into the ground for the first couple of weeks for sure.”

Nic Claxton and Ben Simmons both posted stellar performances while splitting the defensive assignment on Antetokounmpo. Claxton posted a season-high 19 points on 9 of 10 shooting while grabbing eight boards and dishing out five assists. The fourth-year big man is having a breakout season, posting the league's highest field goal percentage (73.8) while ranking second in both blocks and points allowed per isolation possession.

Simmons filled the stat sheet with 12 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals. The three-time All-Star forced his imprint on every aspect of the game – defending, rebounding, and facilitating or attacking the rim while pushing the pace.

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Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer spoke pregame about what Simmons has added to this new iteration of the Nets.

“He’s such a unique player,” Budenzolzer said of Simmons. “He brings a lot to the table, particularly defensively. He can really change the game on that end of the court. And then his playmaking, his ability to get into the paint and facilitate using his vision… We have a lot of respect for Ben Simmons and what he brings on both ends of the court.”

Kyrie Irving struggled early, shooting 1 for 9 from the field through the first three quarters. However, the seven-time All-Star rose to the challenge with Milwaukee mounting a comeback in the final frame, scoring 14 points on 5 of 9 shooting to put the Bucks away.

T.J. Warren also continued to make an impact off the bench since returning from a two-year absence. The forward posted 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists on 5 of 11 shooting. Warren has added another versatile forward to Brooklyn's rotation, averaging 11.0 points on 59.2 percent shooting over his last six games.

Friday's win brings the Nets to 21-12 on the season. After a 2-7 start, Brooklyn sits just two games back of Boston for first place in the Eastern Conference and a half game back of Cleveland for third.

Durant and co. will have another opportunity to gain ground in the standings when they travel to face the Cavaliers Monday.