Nothing was more important than the Nets.

Right after the Knicks learned they would be facing the Pistons in the first round of the playoffs, they were preoccupied with a different challenge – enduring their longest losing streak of the season.

The streak started on Tuesday when the Knicks let slip a chance to defeat the Celtics, surrendering their lead in the closing moments of regulation and eventually losing in overtime.

Two days later, the Knicks blew a 13-point second-half lead in Detroit.

On Friday, the Knicks coughed up a 23-point lead to the Cavaliers.

Even though Sunday’s last regular-season game against the Brooklyn team will not affect their playoff position, and even though the opponent is one of the weakest in the league, it is still an important match for the team.

The Knicks are in no position to treat any minutes as meaningless.

“We’ll talk about [the playoffs] once all 82 games are played,” Jalen Brunson said after Friday’s loss. “We gotta go into this next game with the right mentality, the right mindset and have a short-term memory. You can’t let things like this linger on. It’s important to have a short-term memory right now and just continue to move forward. I know it’s tough. I know it sounds like it’s B.S., but it’s literally what we have to do right now in order for us to be better.

“We got one more game to go, and then we can talk about all that.”

After facing the top two teams in the Eastern Conference and their upcoming playoff opponent, the Knicks (50-31) have the right matchup to rediscover their confidence.

The Nets (26-55) have lost all three meetings with the Knicks this season and have gone 5-20 since Feb. 22, regularly running out a youthful, inexperienced lineup that only Brooklyn diehards could accurately identify.

The Knicks have gone 35-8 against teams with a losing record this season. This will be their last chance for another layup — and their 51st win of the season, which would mark the most by the franchise in a dozen years — before Game 1 against the Pistons next weekend at Madison Square Garden.

“We’ve got to find what makes this team successful and work on that,” Josh Hart said. “Obviously, playoff basketball is a different level. The physicality picks up. The intensity picks up. So we gotta make sure we spend this week preparing physically, but, more importantly, mentally.

“We’re not playing close to our best basketball. I think this week, we’ll look at situations and how to get us to our best basketball. … We’ll figure that out. But we gotta go out there and end the season right against Brooklyn and then prepare mentally and physically.”

In preparation for the postseason, Tom Thibodeau has relaxed his all-out mentality, giving rest to Hart, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson on Thursday, before sitting Karl-Anthony Towns on Friday.

The Knicks coach wouldn’t reveal his lineup plan against the Nets.

“We need to get better as a team. We need to get rhythm,” Thibodeau said Friday. “That’s always the question that everyone has. It’s rest vs. rhythm. I think each team has to make the decision for what’s best for their team. And in our case, we’re relying on the medical. If a guy needs time right now, he gets it … [but] keep fighting to run through the finish line.”

The Pistons can wait.

“We’ll get there when we get there,” Thibodeau said. “We still got one more game.”