“Dwight Night” turned into a massive “Dwightmare” for Nets fans on Wednesday.

Just don’t blame Deron Williams.

The Nets trailed by 17 with 9:48 remaining in the third quarter, but Williams carried them back into contention, scoring 12 straight points during a 12-3 run that got his team within 67-59 2:19 later.

“We were mounting a comeback and it looked like the momentum was starting to swing our way,” said Williams, who also scored 12 straight third-quarter points against the Knicks on Monday night.

Unfortunately, Dwight Howard countered with back-to-back baskets inside, sparking a 12-2 run that put the Nets away for good.

Williams finished with 23 points, eight assists, six assists and seven turnovers in 36 minutes, but Howard had 20 points and 17 rebounds of his own in the Magic’s 108-91 shellacking of the Nets at Prudential Center.

“I’m used to seeing those types of dunks with him. That’s what he’s known for,” D-Will said of D-12. “But he’s definitely worked on his game, has a nice jump hook and added some post moves in there. If he could just hit his free throws, he’d average 40.”

Free-throw shooting has been D-12’s Achilles’ heel all season. He came in shooting 50.1 percent from the stripe, and it didn’t help that he went 2-for-10 on Wednesday night. But Howard’s impact was felt on the defensive end of the floor too, where he finished with two blocks and two steals.

“I mean, he’s just the type of player, any time you go to the basket you’re aware of where he’s at or you’re thinking about it,” D-Will said. “That’s the kind of impact he has on the defensive end. He’s always, if he’s not blocking shots he’s altering them, changing them -- like I said, making you think about them.”

Howard also dished out four assists.

“It’s very important to get my teammates involved early and throughout the game,” Howard said. “It makes it easy for myself down in the post, and I was really just trying to read the defense and find the open guy. But I think our defensive pressure was pretty good the whole game. It kind of stopped in the third quarter and they made a little run, but we got a good win.”

• Brook Lopez played a lot better on Wednesday night than he did on Sunday night. In his second game back after missing the first 32 games of the season with a broken foot, the 23-year-old center scored 15 points on 7-for-16 shooting in 28 minutes. He grabbed four rebounds and blocked two shots.

“I definitely [felt better]. I got to attribute that to my teammates giving me the ball where I could score,” Lopez said. “You know, I’m just trying to get out there and get back into game shape.”

Lopez called his night facing D-12, “interesting.”

“I got up and down a lot,” Lopez said. “I was able to coax more minutes out of coach [he was supposed to play 22-to-26]. It felt good to be out there. My legs weren’t there the entire game and I felt myself dragging a little bit, but I just tried to put that out of my mind and keep going.”

• The Nets have been decimated by injuries all season. It’s one of the many reasons why they’re 10-25 at the All-Star break.

“I have started 17 [different lineups] now,” Johnson said. “I’m praying. I was talking [GM] Billy King and even the team and when I was addressing them after the game, maybe it’s too much to ask for, but I was hoping that we could have all 12 or 13 of our players healthy.”

The Nets are 7-12 on the road, but have struggled to shoot at home, where they’ve lost seven straight games.

“We’ve gotta figure out how to play better at home in this building,” Johnson said.

• Think the Nets missed Kris Humphries on Wednesday night?

They were outscored in the paint, 58-32, and outrebounded, 46-37.

• Defensively, the Nets allowed the Magic to shoot 53.6 percent and make 13 of their 29 3-point attempts. Not good. Not good at all.

The Nets came in ranked last in the NBA in opponents’ field goal percentage and 3-point percentage, and it showed.