The Brooklyn Nets made a good first impression on Thursday night and so did Jeremy Lin as the Nets beat the Detroit Pistons 101-94 at Barclays Center.

Lin had a game-high 21 points, shooting 7-of-11 including 5-of-8 from deep in just over 17 minutes. The Nets’ point guard was sharp from the get-go, knocking down three of his first four three-pointers, looking comfortable with a jumper he’s been perfecting for over a year.

“It felt great,” Lin said of his new stroke. “I got in a zone and honestly if I wasn’t so caught up in trying to hit some more, I think my last two would have dropped.”

The Nets’ emphasis on moving the ball and looking for three was evident early. Brooklyn hit 9-of-19 from deep in the first half, with Lin and Luis Scola each dropping 3-of-4. Even Brook Lopez – who attempted 14 three’s last season – connected on 1-of-2 from downtown.

“Tonight we didn’t necessarily need [the pick-and-roll],” Lin said. “There will be times where we will have to be more heavy pick-and-roll, I understand that and each game has its own personality. Tonight we were getting good shots and it was flowing and the guys were finding me and that’s unselfish basketball and I was the recipient of that tonight.”

As a team, the Nets hit 35-of-78 (.449) from the field and 14-of-34 from deep. Defensively, the Nets got out to a rough start, allowing the Pistons to shoot 58% (25-of-43) from the field in the first half, falling behind 59-57 at the break. But in the second half, the Nets tightened up, holding the Pistons to 35 points.

“We struggled in the first half against a good team, a good offensive team, but on the positive side, they only scored 35 points in the second half,” Coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We picked up our activity. I think we were just more active. We got in passing lanes, we caused a lot of havoc out there and that was a real positive defensively.”

Atkinson also said he sees room for the team to grow on both sides of the ball. While the Nets took what the Pistons’ defense gave them on Thursday, he wants to see his team looking for great shots, rather than just good ones.

Fifteen of the Nets’ 20 players hit the floor in the preseason opener, including Greivis Vasquez, who missed 59 games last season, as well as the Summer Olympics in Rio with an ankle injury. Vasquez said he felt pretty good on Thursday.

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The five Nets that didn’t play on Thursday were: Bojan Bogdanovic, Isaiah Whitehead, Beau Beech, Egidijus Mockevicius and Caris LeVert. Lopez (eight points) only played 12:32, giving extra time to Justin Hamilton (9 points, 20:02), Chris McCullough (4 points, 15:26) and Scola (10 points, 17:20).

“We have 19 guys that we want to see,” Atkinson said. “We’re going to mix and match a little bit there. We can’t play them all, we want to see everybody.”

The preseason continues on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden when the Nets take on the Knicks. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.

NOTES: Andre Drummond had a game-high 21 rebounds for the Pistons… Joe Harris scored 12 points for the Nets… Trevor Booker and Justin Hamilton each had a team-high five rebounds for the Nets.