NBA

Deron scores 31 as Nets pulverize Pistons

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — After the Nets collapsed Sunday night in Brooklyn against the Hawks, Deron Williams talked about how the eight-game, 17-day Circus Trip he and his teammates began last night would be a huge test for them both mentally and physically.

Williams then went out and made sure the trip started off right, scoring 31 points in 28 minutes as the Nets cruised to a 119-82 victory over the Pistons in front of 16,702 inside The Palace of Auburn Hills.

“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Williams said after going 10-for-18 from the field — including 4-for-8 from 3-point range — to go along with five assists. “I didn’t think I was aggressive enough [against Atlanta] throughout the course of the game, and I just wanted to impose my will a little bit more on this game.”

He certainly accomplished that, scoring 14 points in both the first and third quarters to spur the Nets to a much-needed victory that allowed them remain within a game of the Knicks for the Atlantic Division lead.

The Nets (39-28) jumped out to an early 16-10 lead after Williams scored nine quick points and hit Gerald Wallace for an alley-oop on the break and never looked back, easily dispatching the Pistons (23-46) for the third time in as many meetings this season.

The Nets shot 57 percent from the field and also went 10-for-12 from the foul line to jump out to a 36-23 lead after one quarter.

“We just came out with the focus and intensity that we needed,” said Joe Johnson, who had 13 points.

That carried over to the second quarter, when the Nets’ second team — which included Jerry Stackhouse, who hadn’t played since Jan. 26, in place of Keith Bogans, who sat with a sore left ankle — pushed the lead to 52-33 on a circus layup by Stackhouse halfway through the quarter.

“The second team played really well,” interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “They blocked shots, they drew charges … a lot of the things we did not do well [Sunday], we did well [last night], and it is really encouraging to see us respond.”

After the starters allowed Detroit to make it a respectable 59-45 score at halftime, Williams made sure the Nets put the game away in the third.

The star point guard, who has looked like a totally different player since the All-Star break after undergoing plasma-rich-platelet treatment and getting a third round of cortisone shots in his two ailing ankles, scored 11 out of 14 Nets points late in the quarter. The Nets finished on an 18-5 run that sent them into the fourth with a commanding 90-58 lead and allowed them to leave their reserves in.

“We needed a win,” Williams said. “That’s the bottom line. That was a tough loss [against Atlanta], a tough pill to swallow, and we needed to bounce back. This was a must-win for us.”

It allowed the Nets to keep pace with the Knicks, who won last night in Utah, after they failed Sunday to take advantage of their opportunity to pull even with their cross-town rivals atop the division for the first time since the two teams ended November 11-4.

Just as importantly, the win ensured the Nets started off their most difficult two weeks of the season in the best way possible.

“It was great,” said Brook Lopez, who had 18 points and seven rebounds. “We wanted to come out and really control the game for the entire game. We had it all four quarters, and we wanted to start our road trip off right.”

tbontemps@nypost.com