The Nets entered play in their worst funk of the season.
Luckily for Brooklyn, it found an opponent mired in the worst funk in the NBA in a decade.
With a 126-115 win in front of a sell-out crowd of 17,732 at Barclays Center on Saturday, the Nets snapped a five-game skid and handed the horrid Pistons their 26th consecutive loss — equaling the most in a single season in the history of the league.
The Pistons now share the ugly record with the 2010-11 Cavaliers and the 2013-14 76ers.
The Nets’ first win since Dec. 13 in Phoenix probably should come with an asterisk, and old friends Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Harris could not help their team put up much of a fight.
Brooklyn can push the Pistons into uncharted territory on Tuesday, when the teams match up again for the Detroit half of the home-and-home series.
“The main concern is us winning a basketball game,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said before the game, ignoring his opponent’s flirtation with inglorious history. “I got too much respect for the teams and the players in this league to look beyond that.”
The Nets (14-15) led by as many as 13 in the first half, an edge largely built by Mikal Bridges’ 19 points in the first two quarters.
The Pistons did not have an answer for the do-everything wing, who finished with 29 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
He scored in just about every way, including circling his way into the lane, out of the lane and back into the lane for his last bucket of the half.
Earlier in the night, Vaughn spoke about the necessity to get off to a strong start, as some nerves could creep in if the sinking Pistons grabbed a lead.
Detroit did jump out to a 6-0 edge, but Vaughn’s club erased the deficit quickly.
Those nerves might have appeared midway through the third quarter, when Detroit strung together a 12-4 run to turn a 10-point deficit into a two-point Nets lead.
After Jaden Ivey’s difficult transition layup, some fear set in from the crowd, which first groaned and then quieted.
It was Cam Johnson who allowed an exhale, scooping up a layup before leading a fastbreak that ended with a Nic Claxton dunk.
Those were the first points of a 21-7 Nets spurt to close the quarter, effectively end the game and tone down any anxiety from the crowd — whose noise peaked when Royce O’Neale hit Dorian Finney-Smith with a touchdown pass that led to a fast-break dunk late in the quarter.
The Nets led by as many as 21, and the Pistons never drew closer than 10 points away in the final quarter.
Bridges was the catalyst, but he had plenty of company on a night the Nets put a season-high-tying seven into double-figures, including the entire starting five.
Finney-Smith and Day’Ron Sharpe combined to go 9-for-12 for 21 points off the bench, both contributing valuable minutes that helped allow Vaughn to empty the bench late.
The Nets’ victory was thorough, out-shooting, out-rebounding, out-assisting, out-stealing and outplaying Detroit, which was led by Ivey’s 23 points and Cade Cunningham’s 22.
If Bridges wasn’t answering runs, it was Cam Thomas (20 points), who also notched his second four-point play in as many nights, or Johnson (18 points on 6-for-10 shooting).
Even on the second half of a back-to-back after falling to the Nuggets on Friday, the Nets looked like the team with more energy.
The Pistons’ (2-27) skid is tied for the longest in league history but has a bit further to go when including years bridged together. The longest losing streak over multiple seasons is held by the 76ers, who lost 28 straight from the 2014-15 season to the 2015-16 campaign.