The Nets beat the Sacramento Kings 116-99 Sunday night at Barclays Center, snapping a 10-game losing streak and improving to 18-57 in a matchup that many in the tanking crowd didn’t want them to win.

Instead, Brooklyn took the victory, and with seven games left, it dropped them from second to third in the NBA draft lottery standings.

If the goal down the stretch is still calculated losing, there was only so much Brooklyn could do to manufacture it in a game like this. Sacramento sat Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook, Keegan Murray and others, and the Kings were already depleted as it was.

Brooklyn was missing its usual names, too. Michael Porter Jr., Egor Dëmin and Day’Ron Sharpe remained out, and rookie Danny Wolf watched from the bench in a boot and on crutches. Then the Nets got hit again Sunday afternoon, when Josh Minott and Jalen Wilson were ruled out.

None of it mattered once the ball went up. The game felt like a scrimmage that quickly turned into a flood.

Brooklyn’s first half was as dominant as it gets for a team that has spent weeks searching for clean stretches. The Nets shot 50% from the field, buried 11 3-pointers and held the Kings to 37.5% shooting while building a 68-45 halftime lead. Noah Clowney, Nolan Traoré and Ochai Agbaji were already in double figures at the break.

Traoré led the Nets with 17 points and six assists, controlling the game without needing to overcomplicate it. Drake Powell added 16 points. Clowney finished with 15 points and seven rebounds in his second game back from injury, giving Brooklyn steady outside shooting. Agbaji led all reserves with a season-high-tying 18 points.

The Nets shot 49.4% for the game and knocked down 17 3-pointers, building a lead that reached 27. The Kings never had the defensive activity to disrupt them much.

Sacramento did have one push, and it came the way those pushes usually do. Turnovers.

After Brooklyn spent two quarters playing mostly clean, the third quarter got loose. The Nets gave it away 10 times in the period, which turned into 13 extra points for Sacramento, and it was the biggest reason the Kings outscored them 28-18 even though Brooklyn still shot 46.2% in the quarter. Just like that, what had been a 23-point halftime lead was trimmed to 13 entering the fourth.

For a Nets team that has watched too many games slip in the same way, the early minutes of the fourth carried a familiar warning. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Doug McDermott and DaQuan Jeffries made it a nine-point game with 9:49 left. That was as close as it got.

Brooklyn didn’t give another inch. The Nets responded with a 10-0 run to slam the door shut. No blown lead. Just a quick, decisive answer, then a comfortable finish.

Devin Carter led six Kings players in double figures with 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but Sacramento never found enough shot-making to keep up with a Nets team that was raining 3s and finally playing with some air in its lungs.

One other detail jumped out, too. Ziaire Williams, who had averaged 17.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.8 steals over his last five games entering the night, never got off the bench Sunday.

The Nets will return to action Tuesday against the Charlotte Hornets at Barclays Center.

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