The Nets got lucky in escaping Utah 111-110 on Sunday before a sellout crowd of 17,732 at Barclays Center. But this time of year, lucky is better than the other way around.

Brooklyn took its foot off the gas and let a 23-point lead shrivel to one.

And even holding onto that one required a last-second nail-biter, having to survive Kelly Olynyk’s runner at the buzzer that just fell off the rim.

“There’s only one winner and one loser in every single game,” Jacque Vaughn said. “We won, so we’re gonna take the win and keep this thing moving.”

This is the bottom-line point of the season, with just four games left.

And after getting a team-high 30 points and seven rebounds from Mikal Bridges, the Nets have won three straight, and four of five to rebound from a five-game skid.

“Truth is they picked it up a notch. They just kept playing hard,” Bridges said. “I knew that coming in, they were just gonna keep fighting. That’s what they did.”

The Nets (43-35) lead seventh-place Miami by two full games and the tiebreaker for the sixth and final guaranteed playoff spot in the East after Sunday’s victory.

Make that Sunday’s ugly victory.

“It was a nasty win,” said Nic Claxton, who had 14 points on 7 of 8 shooting and seven rebounds. “In the third quarter they just got it going, their energy, they started hitting shots. They were just driving to the rim, putting their head down and they were getting a lot of calls. We’ve got to do a better job of not fouling. But we were able to get the win.”

The Nets led 93-70 before they got complacent.

Bridges and Dorian Finney-Smith held All-Star Lauri Markkanen to a fairly quiet 23 points on 8 of 21 shooting.

But Utah’s Talen Horton-Tucker had 15 of his game-high 32 points in a fourth quarter that saw Brooklyn outscored 42-26.

The Nets conceded a 26-8 run and saw their once-safe lead shrivel to one.

After Seth Curry went to the line to ice it, he missed two free throws with five seconds left. But Olynyk’s jumper at the buzzer sailed long.

“We took our foot off the gas a little bit obviously,” said Spencer Dinwiddie, who had 17 points and a dozen assists and acknowledged in a courtside TV interview that Brooklyn was fortunate to escape.

“We let them get in the bonus with 9 ½ minutes [left]. You’ve got a team that’s young and figuring things out, but you know they can put their heads down and drive, because worst-case scenario you get free throws. We can’t do that.”

Clinging to a 15-14 edge after Horton-Tucker’s midrange fadeaway, the Nets took control with an 11-1 run. Bridges capped the run with a 3 off a feed from Cam Johnson (18 points, six rebounds) that ran the lead to 26-15 with 2:52 to go in the first.

Curry’s step-back made it 32-17 with 11:27 left in the second, and Claxton’s turnaround bank shot on the next trip downcourt pushed it back to 34-19.

Yuta Watanabe drilled a right-corner 3-pointer to make it 91-70, then set up Day’Ron Sharpe’s bucket to pad the cushion to 93-70 with 9:51 to play.

But the Nets got outscored 40-18 the rest of the way, and what should’ve been a laugher nearly got away.

It was still 110-105 after Johnson’s free throws with 14.1 seconds left, but Ochai Agbaji (19 points) drilled a 3. Dinwiddie got fouled but made just one of two at the stripe, leaving the door open for the Jazz.

When Horton-Tucker went to the line on the other end, he sank both to cut Brooklyn’s lead to one with 7.9 seconds to play.

Curry had a chance to ice it from the line but missed both with 5.8 seconds left. Markkanen got the rebound, but the Nets forced him to give it up to Olynyk, Curry defending the latter’s hesitation move and forcing a one-legged jumper that missed.

“It’s tough, man,” said Claxton. “Just hoping … I was happy Olynyk got the ball honestly, and just hoping they didn’t go down and make a shot or get fouled.”