Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said his side's 1-0 victory at Sampdoria was "an important step" on their road to making Serie A history.
The reigning champions moved 10 points clear of second-placed Napoli thanks to Juan Cuadrado's seventh-minute goal at the Marassi.
But they found their opponents difficult to break down and almost conceded a late leveller.
Allegri's men look increasingly likely to clinch an historic sixth straight Scudetto.
He told the official Juventus website: "It was an important step forward. We played a great first half, among the best halves we've played this season.
"In the second half, however, we were a bit distracted and suffered on some fast counter-attacks from them when we should have been able to avoid danger.
"Some days you just have to get through it, and this was one of those days."
Juventus face Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Champions League in April and Allegri said: "Playing in games like this should be the norm for us.
"We might get past them, we might go out, but Juventus should not consider these types of matches to be exceptional events."
Sampdoria head coach Marco Giampaolo, who has never tasted victory over Juve in his career as a Serie A coach, told Sky Sport Italia: "Losing is never good, even if you're losing to a team as good as Juventus.
"But I liked what the team did today -- we had the right attitude, we were proactive."