The Brooklyn Nets have secured their third consecutive victory with Michael Porter Jr. as a starter.

This streak suggests a turning point may be on the horizon.

The latest triumph was a decisive 119-101 win over the struggling New Orleans Pelicans, witnessed by 17,055 fans at the Barclays Center.

The Pelicans’ performance was so lackluster that despite not intentionally losing, they still managed to be outplayed by the Nets. With Porter Jr. in the lineup, the Nets’ record has improved to 6-17, presenting a more competitive front.

In a strategic move, the Nets chose to rest Porter Jr. during Thursday’s game against another team eyeing the lottery, citing management of a lower back issue. Without him, Brooklyn’s offense faltered in the fourth quarter.

It was a calculated result that moved them up into fourth in the lottery odds.

But it also showed Porter’s impact.

Saturday underscored it, as he outscored the Pelicans.

Porter poured in a game-high 35 points on 14-of-23 shooting, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range.

It tied a career-long string of three straight 30-point outings.

It’s no coincidence that the Nets won all of those games, and they are now 6-7 in his last 13 appearances since Cam Thomas went down.

Porter came into the night in the 79th percentile in on-off impact, per Cleaning The Glass.

Offensively the boost was even greater, in the 91st percentile.

And his budding chemistry with Nic Claxton has helped the center blossom into a legitimate offensive hub, cutting up opposing defenses with dribble handoffs.

Claxton had his second career triple-double with a game-high 10 assists to go with 14 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and a plus-24 to dominate Pelicans rookie Derik Queen, for whom they gave away next year’s likely lottery pick.

The Nets led by 28 in shooting .528 overall and 14-of-35 from deep.

Meanwhile, Nets rookie Egor Dëmin (eight points, seven assists, four boards) outplayed Jeremiah Fears, who was taken one spot ahead of him at seventh in the draft but finished 4-of-16 and a minus-22.

Trey Murphy had 23 points for the Pelicans, who fell to 3-21.

With the Nets leading just 14-13 early, they used a 16-4 run over 3 ½ minutes to open up a 30-17 cushion on a nice feed from rookie Danny Wolf to Day’Ron Sharpe.

They never let it get close the rest of the evening.

After Fears pulled the Pelicans within 51-42, another 13-2 run ended any drama.

Terance Mann capped the run and made it 64-44.

The lead ballooned to 28 when Porter found Ziaire Williams for a layup and 92-64 lead with three minutes left in the third.

The fourth was garbage time.

Claxton is the first Net with multiple triple-doubles in a season since James Harden (nine) and Kevin Durant (four) back in 2021-22, which likely seems like a lifetime ago to Brooklyn fans.

He’s just the second center in team history with multiple career triple-doubles, after Shawn Bradley’s five from 1995-97.