The Nets had one job in their final regular season game before Tuesday’s Play-In Tournament begins: secure home-court advantage by defeating an Indiana Pacers team with the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference on Sunday.

That job proved much easier said than done, and it’s another reason why Brooklyn remains one of the most polarizing teams competing for an NBA title this season. They have shown up, at times, for games against the elite teams in their conference but sleep-walk through teams they perceive to be beneath them. They blew a lead against the Detroit Pistons, had to come back from down 21 against the New York Knicks, blew a lead against the Houston Rockets and then forfeited an 18-point advantage against the Pacers before pulling away for a 134-126 victory at Barclays Center.

“We just lost focus at the start of the second half, gave up 60 in the first half, 66 in the second and we just lost focus,” head coach Steve Nash said after the game. “In the first half some of it was just live ball turnovers, they ran out down. It could have been 25 points at the half. And we came out in the second half and thought it was a formality and we were in a game.”

That’s an important trend to note because the Nets are a championship contender at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, which means they will need to play at least one team beneath them in the standings if they’re going to secure their playoff spot. The Nets have already lost to the Charlotte Hornets and Atlanta Hawks this season. They also blew a 17-point lead in Friday’s victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team they may are locked in to play in Tuesday’s Play-In Tournament game. If the Nets lose to the Cavaliers, they will then play the winner between Atlanta and Charlotte.

“We got up to seventh, we were in 10th a week ago,” Nash said. “We’ve had to weather a lot for guys to get here and (to) earn the opportunity to play today for seventh was a testament to their resolve and today getting the job done regardless of how, that’s all that matters. We’re through and we’ll play Tuesday at home court.”

The solution to the Nets’ woes is to string together a full 48-minute effort in a basketball game, rather than just spurts of good followed by spurts of nonchalant. The Nets jumped out to an early 8-0 lead over the Pacers, but took their foot off the gas after the half.

At the height of Indiana’s third-quarter run, the Pacers tied the game at 91 apiece and were a blown wide-open three away from taking their only lead of the game. They opened the second half with an 17-2 run, benefitting from increased full-court defensive pressure and hot three-point shooting.

“The game of basketball is a game of runs,” said Andre Drummond. “They did what they’re supposed to. They played hard and they made shots. It’s the way of the game. Nothing you can do about that. We tried to slow them down as much as we can and we ended up making more shots than they did.”

The result was even more minutes for both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, each of whom logged 40 minutes for a job that could have been completed in 25.

Durant played full-time facilitator and part-time sniper against the Pacers. He set a new career high with 16 assists and logged a triple double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Irving scored 35 on 15-of-20 shooting, and Andre Drummond finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds to go with two blocks. Bruce Brown also scored 20, marking the first time the Nets one of few occurrences this season where four players score 20 or more points in a game.

“We don’t want to take nights like this for granted, especially when we felt like we were gonna get tested by the Indiana Pacers,” said Irving. “They’ve had some tough games as of late against the top teams in the Eastern Conference … So we just were well prepared and again we just have to carry on those lessons that we learned from the past few games of just putting on a full 48-minute game together where things are not going to go perfect, but we’re able to control those five-minute spurts where we’re not scoring on the offensive end and defensively, we’re just in the right spots.”

It’s also the umpteenth time they’ve allowed a lesser team to run up the score. The Nets also allowed the league-worst Detroit Pistons to score 123 points and gave up the same amount of points lowly Portland Trail Blazers.

Making the victory pretty, however, wasn’t the task on Sunday. Securing the No. 7 seed for the Play-In Tournament was, and the Nets can mark the task as completed, even if they forfeited a sizable lead along the way. It hasn’t been pretty all season for a team battered by injury, COVID-19, an unvaccinated superstar, and a disgruntled point guard, but they cross the finish line in the best possible position they could be in given the circumstances.

Now on to Tuesday, where a win will cement a first-round playoff series against either the Bucks or the Celtics.

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