The Nets were supposed to be insignificant this season, but they did something significant last night. Forgive them for not popping any champagne.

But it sounds like one of their players wants to pop someone.

Maybe the Nets will uncork the bubbly when they finally win a game, whenever that is. Thus far they’re 0-for-18. No team in NBA history has lost that many games in a row to start a season. Not the Clippers, a perennial doormat or even the 1972-73 Sixers, who won just nine games in that fateful and forgettable season.

No, the Nets stand alone after their 117-101 loss last night to the Mavericks. An 0-18 record is the new standard and dare we say 18 and counting.

This was going to be a tough game to get against Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and the Mavericks, but the Nets laid down after a second-period onslaught that had beat writers and team PR staffers combing the record books.

The Mavericks missed two shots in the second, scored 49 points in the period and sizzled at an 80.6-percent shooting clip in the first half. The game and the record were history. The anger and embarrassment were just beginning.

Chris Douglas-Roberts took everyone on his team to task after the game for not being tougher.

“You have to have heart,” he said. “You have to have the heart to overcome something like this. It’s simple. We’re the only team without a win. Okay. There’s other teams who aren’t good teams but they’re winning, some games.”

Publicly – and probably privately - Douglas-Roberts takes losing worse than anyone on the Nets. It eats at him and he showed the effect it has on him during his post-game interview session.

Will it do any good? Probably not. Douglas-Roberts makes some valid points and his teammates should listen. But it’s nothing new. He said it a little more forcefully last night, but he has said it before.

At this point, it’s not going to take a coaching change, which the Nets already have undergone with the dismissal of Lawrence Frank. It’s going to take a collective, “We’re not going to take it anymore” attitude.

Everyone has been waiting for the Nets to show that. But instead, they’re showing little passion and fire.

There’s a big-time talent difference in some of the teams they’ve played lately but against the Nuggets, Blazers, Kings, Lakers and Mavericks, the Nets have led by as many as 23, 16, 22, 34 and 31, respectively. Embarrassing.

When Kiki Vandeweghe takes over the coaching reins today from acting coach Tom Barrise, and with his new lead assistant Del Harris on board the tact they may try is to say it’s a new day, forget about what happened, we’re going to do things differently, practice differently, play differently and we’re going to win games.

Nets president Rod Thorn talked about the team needing a new voice. Now they have two in the soft-spoken Vandeweghe and Harris, the sage who has seen it all. But this has to be a new experience even for him. It’s a new experience for everyone.

But now the Nets have the record. They no longer share it with the expansion 1988-89 Heat and the lowly Clippers of the lockout shortened 1999 season. The only significance of the next game is it’s Vandeweghe’s coaching debut Friday against the Bobcats.

Oh-and-19 only extends the record and makes it harder for the next team. The next loss that matters is if the Nets drop their 23rd or 24th straight, which would tie and set the all-time marks for consecutive defeats. 

The Nets don’t want to get there. They didn’t want to get here, but they did for a litany of reasons. They’ve made changes, coaching changes, style changes. The new regime takes over today and may try to say forget about the record and just look forward.

But the players have to look inside themselves too and say enough is enough. Douglas-Roberts words shouldn’t just be nice quotes for a newspaper or blog. They should be heeded.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)