The Brooklyn Nets (17-48) have a little over one month left in their 2025-26 NBA season and they’re hoping that they can finish the campaign on a strong note. Brooklyn recently ended their 10-game losing streak with a 23-point comeback win over the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons, but it looks like they still rank as one of the worst teams in the league moving forward.

“Before Saturday, the Nets had lost their last 17 games against the 17 teams that currently have winning records, and they were a league-worst 1-43 (with 28 straight losses) in games they trailed by double-digits,” John Schuhmann wrote in his power rankings for NBA.com heading into the week of Mar. 9. Brooklyn moved up from the 28th spot to 27th this week and it seems like the race to the bottom could be more important to end the season.

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“The Nets have seven games remaining within the bottom 10 in the league, and five of the seven are at home,” Schuhmann noted before Brooklyn beat the Memphis Grizzlies at home on Monday 126-115. As far as finishing the season is concerned, the Nets have the fifth-easiest schedule heading into Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.

With rookie guard Egor Demin being ruled out for the rest of the season due to increased plantar fasciitis in his left foot, the Nets could take that as a sign to take it easy to finish the year. Brooklyn has the fourth-worst record in the league and if they’re going to ensure that they have the best possible chances of getting the first overall pick (14.0%), they will have to find a way to end up with a bottom-3 record.

Brooklyn could resort to sitting veterans Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Claxton for some games down the stretch, especially with both players dealing with various injuries at this point in a lost campaign. With the Nets heading into a matchup at the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday, Brooklyn won’t have Porter (right ankle sprain), rookie guard Nolan Traore (rest), or backup center Day’Ron Sharpe (left thumb sprain) so it seems that the team is being cautious of how the players are feeling to finish the campaign.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets place 27th in NBA.com power rankings (Mar. 9 update)