Nets hope to hand Pistons historic loss

The Brooklyn Nets don’t want to be the team that helps the Detroit Pistons end the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history.

Even if they feel a touch of sympathy for the league’s worst team.

“I told them, some of the young guys on (their) team after the game, that sometimes you got to lose before you can win,” Nets forward Cam Johnson revealed after Brooklyn handed Detroit its record-tying 26th consecutive defeat Saturday night in Downtown Brooklyn.

Mikal Bridges scored 29 points, Cam Thomas had 20 and Johnson finished with 18 for the Nets, who ran away with a 126-115 triumph over the struggling Pistons in front of a sellout crowd of 17,732 at Barclays Center.

As this home-and-home series moves to the Motor City on Tuesday night, Detroit (2-27) is on the brink of owning the record for futility all by itself.

Only the 2011-12 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers had lost as many straight games in a single campaign. The Sixers dropped 28 in a row spanning two seasons from 2014 to 2016.

“We had a lot of tough breaks this year, but I try not to look at life that way. It just happens,” said first-year Detroit coach Monty Williams, who coached both Johnson and Bridges in Phoenix.

Not to be lost in all the misery for the Pistons was the Nets’ first win following a season-high five-game slide.

Brooklyn had dropped the final three contests on its five-game West Coast swing before returning here and losing back-to-back games to the New York Knicks and defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets.

Now, the Nets want to avoid becoming the first team Detroit has defeated since it improved to 2-1 with a 118-102 triumph over visiting Chicago at Little Caesars Arena on Oct. 28.

“We (were) trying to get off this losing streak as well, so ain’t no pressure. We just want to win,”…