The Nets ultimately retained Finney-Smith, but his on-court production over his last 10 starts entering Tuesday’s matchup against the shorthanded Philadelphia 76ers had been shaky at best, as he averaged 6.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists while shooting an efficient 45.6% from the field, but just 29.4% from 3-point range.

Finney-Smith’s best performances over that stretch came in two road games against Minnesota and Memphis, where he averaged 12 points and nine rebounds on 52.6% shooting.

However, a player as talented as Finney-Smith was bound to have a breakout game at some point this season. And his signature moment finally came in Tuesday’s 112-107 win, a game where the Nets entered without Ben Simmons, Cam Thomas and Day’Ron Sharpe, and exited without Cam Johnson.

Interim head coach Kevin Ollie has been begging his players to step up in clutch time. The 6-7 forward responded with 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting in the fourth quarter. He finished with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting with eight rebounds overall to help lead the Nets to victory.

“We got down by 14, got down by eight and he was just saying, ‘Coach, I got you,’ ‘Coach, come on. We good we good’ and he just never wavered and that’s what we need from our leaders, never waver, always have confidence in each other and I thought they just gave that to each other tonight and it was just it was beautiful to watch,” Ollie said.

Mikal Bridges, Dennis Smith Jr. and Dennis Schröder kept finding Finney-Smith for easy buckets around the rim. And Finney-Smith got himself going, too, with a few key offensive rebounds that kept important possessions alive for Brooklyn.

“He’s a dawg, man,” Lonnie Walker IV said. “He does a lot of things that probably don’t get noticed or get seen. You know, a lot of offensive rebounds, put-back layups… He does the dirty work.”

Said Finney- Smith: “Guys were finding me cutting and stuff like that. Coach been asking me to cut a lot more with the new sets that he’s been putting in.”

Finney-Smith, a 37.6% shooter from distance this season, also went 4-of-7 from deep in the win. It was the first time he had made at least four treys in a game since Jan. 27.

“It’s just something that’s going to come back,” Finney-Smith said of his marksmanship. “I feel like the average is going to be what it’s going to be. Just try not to focus on it. It is what it is. Just shoot the ball with confidence and let the results be the results.”

But offense aside, Finney-Smith got it done defensively. He did not record a steal against the 76ers, but had a defensive rating of 109.7, the highest among starters. The Nets were plus-9 with Finney-Smith on the court Tuesday night, but his teammates stepped up defensively, too.

Brooklyn outscored the Philadelphia, 32-24, in the fourth quarter and 28-15 over the final 8:45 of regulation.

“Just getting stops,” Finney-Smith said. “Dennis [Smith Jr.] did a good job of guarding, getting the breakaway steal, the 360. [Nic Claxton] was guarding as well. They went small, and we had to switch everything. So, I feel like everybody stepped up and took the challenge, and we got the win.”

That’s how many regular-season games the Knicks have left.

It’s the number of opportunities a depleted New York roster will get to retain its playoff standing.

The free-fall is in full effect at Madison Square Garden, where a Knicks team without its entire starting frontcourt has lost nine of its last 12 games — including Tuesday’s 16-point loss to the No. 10 Atlanta Hawks in a matchup both Jalen Brunson (bruised knee) and Trae Young (hand surgery) missed due to injury.

Without Brunson — who luckily evaded a serious injury and is working to return to play soon — a Knicks team already short Julius Randle (dislocated right shoulder), OG Anunoby (right elbow surgery) and Mitchell Robinson (left ankle surgery) couldn’t expose a porous Atlanta Hawks defense.

It was one of the Knicks’ ugliest losses of the season.

Such is the status quo — ugly — at The Garden of Dreams, where a roster stretched thin is beginning to reach its limits.

And while it’s unfair to cast higher expectations onto a team missing such core players, the Knicks — shorthanded or not — still need every win they can get, with Tuesday’s inexplicable loss to Atlanta a costly blunder in the standings.

The Orlando Magic, who own the season series against the Knicks, 3-0, leapfrogged New York as the new fourth seed in the East on Tuesday.

The Knicks have fallen to fifth and are only a half-game ahead of the No. 6 Miami Heat.

No. 7 Philadelphia and No. 8 Indiana are within striking distance, too, and 76ers MVP Joel Embiid is expected to return from a meniscus injury soon.

Only 1.5 games separate No. 4 Orlando from No. 8 Indiana, which means the fifth-place Knicks are closer to falling to eighth in East than they are to climbing to the No. 3 seed.

Make no mistake: The No. 3 seed is in play the second Randle, Anunoby and Brunson suit up in the starting lineup once again — and bonus points if Robinson is able to return as a dominant force in the paint this season.

A mostly healthy Knicks team won 13 games in the 16 immediately following the Anunoby trade.

The front office then traded Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier, Malachi Flynn, Ryan Arcidiacono and a pair of second-round picks at the deadline to the Detroit Pistons for Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks.

When healthy, the Knicks project as a deep team, solid on both ends of the floor with an emphasis on threes and rebounding.

And they are led by players coaches voted into the 2024 All-Star Game in Brunson and Randle, who couldn’t attend due to his shoulder injury.

The Knicks know their fortunes will turn the moment they get their horses back on the floor.

“At the end of the day, I feel if this team gets healthy, we can make noise,” veteran forward Josh Hart said after Tuesday’s loss to the Hawks. “Obviously, you don’t want to be in The Play-In. You’d like to have that three or five days of rest going into the first round.

“It’s a cliché Thibs thing, but we’re just trying to take it one day at a time. Obviously, we’re going to get guys back soon, but we have to keep pushing. At the end of the day, we are where we are, and I like this team.”

Which brings us back to the magic number: 20. Twenty games left to decide the Knicks’ standing.

Of those 20 games, 11 are against teams with winning records.

And of those 11 games, seven come in the month of March, with three in a row coming Friday against the Magic, then games both Sunday and Tuesday at home against the Sixers.

Another three will cap a four-game road trip, beginning in Portland then hitting Sacramento, Golden State and Denver, home of the reigning NBA champions.

Injury timelines on Randle and Anunoby are not yet clear, though it would appear Anunoby is further along the rehab process than Randle.

The Knicks are hopeful at least one of the two are back before the end of the month. If both were to return by March 30, the Knicks would have nine games mostly healthy to regain chemistry heading into the playoffs.

Now for some housekeeping.

It would behoove the Knicks not to finish with a seed destined to meet the league-best Boston Celtics in the second round.

Seeds six and seven avoid the Celtics until the Conference Finals, as do seeds two and three, though the Knicks are likely out of the running given their injury situation.

The shorthanded Knicks, of course, cannot be picky. With Randle, Anunoby and Robinson out due to injury, New York will be lucky not to fall into Play-In Tournament territory before their stars return to the court.

And when they do, the process begins all over again.

Randle, for example, is a bruiser who throws his right shoulder into his opponent’s chest. How will he adjust his game now with a shoulder in potential need of offseason surgery?

Anunoby hit a good scoring rhythm shortly before he left the rotation. He’ll need time to find his flow again, too.

And after being thrust into roles requiring more output, players like Hart, Deuce McBride, Precious Achiuwa and Bogdanovic will need to re-adjust to playing alongside the stars.

Just 20 games left, maybe less than half after the Knicks get some familiar faces back on the roster.

It’s a tight window, but if any team has proven an ability to adapt on the fly, it’s these Knicks, who are biding time until their stars return to save the day.

Brooklyn, to the disappointment of many inside Barclays Center, failed to defeat a Luke Kennard-led Memphis Grizzlies team Monday night. It welcomed a Philadelphia 76ers squad without Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey to town Tuesday night in the second game of a back-to-back set.

The Nets took care of business time around, winning 112-107.

“We just dug in, stayed together, stayed connected,” interim head coach Kevin Ollie said. “Nobody was pouting over there. Nobody was pointing fingers. And we just hunt better when we’re in a pack and not individuals.”

Similar to Monday, the Nets suffered another slow start at both ends of the court, finding themselves down 13-5 in a blink. Philadelphia led 30-23 after one quarter and led by as many as 14 points in the second. But Nic Claxton, Lonnie Walker IV and Dennis Smith Jr. spearheaded a furious rally, powered by defense, to cut Brooklyn’s deficit to three with 4:41 left in the half.

Mikal Bridges’ second 3-pointer of the night would have given the Nets the edge at halftime, but Philadelphia’s Cam Payne was fouled by Dennis Schröder while trying to advance the ball up the court with 1.1 seconds left in the half, resulting in two made free throws and a 57-56 advantage for the 76ers at the break.

The Nets did create seven points worth of separation in the third quarter but could not build on it. The 76ers went 3-of-6 from 3-point range and 3-of-4 from the free throw line in the period while Brooklyn went 2-of-7 from deep and did not attempt a single shot from the charity stripe. That was enough to give Philadelphia a three-point lead entering the final frame, which set up quite the finish in the game’s final minutes.

“It was about how we respond and how resilient we could be tonight,” Dennis Smith Jr. said.

A 106-103 game with 39.2 seconds left in regulation, Schröder sliced through the heart of Philadelphia’s defense and finished with a lefty layup to extend Brookyn’s lead to five with 23.1 seconds remaining. Following a timeout by 76ers head coach Nick Nurse, Payne missed a wild layup attempt and Claxton secured the rebound. He was quickly fouled by Payne, and although he split the subsequent free throws, it was enough to put the game out of reach.

The Nets improved to 25-37 with Monday’s win but will remain 2.5 games behind the Hawks for 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings after Atlanta’s surprising 116-100 defeat of the Knicks. That is why it is imperative for this group to win the games it is expected to.

“This is our fourth quarter of our season,” Ollie said. “We have to challenge each other. We can’t let any games slip and we have to take care of business.”

“This is our fourth quarter of our season,” Ollie said. “We have to challenge each other. We can’t let any games slip and we have to take care of business.”

Schröder and Dorian Finney-Smith led Brooklyn with 20 points each. Walker added 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting off the bench in his best scoring performance since Feb. 3.

Kelly Oubre Jr. finished with a game-high 30 points for Philadelphia, who fell to 35-26 this season. The Nets outscored them 32-24 in the final frame, where they trailed by as many as eight points.

Finney-Smith scored 12 of his points in the fourth quarter on 5-of-5 shooting. Walker, who was listed as questionable entering the night, logged a career-high tying plus-29 in just under 30 minutes.

“Coach has been telling us to respond,” Finney-Smith said. “That’s something he’s been challenging us to do, sticking together when things get bad… They came out and hit us in the face first, but sometimes you need stuff like that with Dennis [Schröder] and Kyle Lowry [getting into it]. It gets guys going and it definitely got us going.”

Brooklyn has won three of its past four games, but continues to take losses on the injury front.

However, even with Monday’s win, it feels Brooklyn just keeps taking losses. Cam Johnson, who made his fifth straight start, landed awkwardly on his ankle with 7:07 left in the first quarter after knocking down his only 3-pointer of the night. He briefly went back to the locker room for a few minutes before returning to the court for a short stint but was ultimately ruled out for the rest of the game after halftime.

Johnson finished with six points and a rebound in eight minutes. The Nets were already playing without Ben Simmons, Cam Thomas and Day’Ron Sharpe Monday night. Brooklyn will begin a five-game road trip on Thursday against the Detroit Pistons.

“Since the beginning of the season, I have continuously said we’re figuring it out and we’re growing and we’re improving and we’re learning from it,” Walker said. “And this is a clear example of our growth and all the trials and tribulations that we’ve been through.”

The latest defeat: a disappointing 116-100 loss to an Atlanta Hawks team without All-Star guard Trae Young (hand surgery).

The Knicks entered the matchup with the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference but fell to fifth after Tuesday’s loss at The Garden.

The Orlando Magic have leapfrogged the standings and sit fourth; the Knicks are fifth, the Miami Heat sixth, Philadelphia is now seventh and the Indiana Pacers sit eighth.

And only two games separate the East’s No. 4 seed from eighth place in the conference.

This means while things are getting good for fans seeking spirited basketball to end the regular season, the status quo couldn’t be worse for a Knicks team in arm’s reach of the East’s No. 2 seed back in January.

The Knicks were on a steamroller after trading for OG Anunoby and rattled off 13 wins in the first 16 games after the deal.

Anunoby (right elbow surgery) got hurt. Julius Randle (dislocated right shoulder) did, too. Mitchell Robinson (left ankle surgery) was already out before the pair of forwards went down.

And Jalen Brunson was the latest addition to the injury report, missing Tuesday’s matchup against the Hawks after sustaining a bruised knee on Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Without the offensive firepower — and Anunoby’s defensive presence — the Knicks have now lost nine of their last 13 games.

For a team many considered dark horse contenders to make an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, the sudden-death Play-In Tournament never felt so real.

Veteran forward Josh Hart says he doesn’t think about the standings too much, but he also knows the Knicks are a different, more dominant team when they can get their injured players back on the court.

“At the end of the day, I feel if this team gets healthy, we can make noise,” Hart said after the loss on Tuesday. “Obviously, you don’t want to be in the Play-In. You’d like to have that three or five days of rest going int the first round.

“It’s a cliché Thibs thing, but we’re just trying to take it one day at a time. Obviously, we’re going to get guys back soon, but we have to keep pushing. At the end of the day, we are where we are, and I like this team.”

Young’s absence didn’t make the Hawks any better on defense — but the Knicks were unable to take advantage of the shoddy Atlanta defense.

In fact, the three-point-happy Knicks shot just 3-of-16 from downtown in the first quarter despite getting several open looks courtesy of a Hawks rotation perpetually several seconds.

It didn’t matter.

The Knicks shot 16-of-52 (30.8 percent) from downtown on the night, lost on the glass, 51-40, and were uncharacteristically poor taking care of the ball with 11 turnovers on the night, including a number of costly errors in the opening period.

In short, they violated the main tenets of Tom Thibodeau’s basketball philosophy: force the defense to collapse to generate open threes, win the rebound margin, don’t give the ball away.

New York trailed by as many as 22 and never led in a wire-to-wire victory for the lottery-bound Hawks.

The Knicks can’t afford to play this poorly with the players who are out of the rotation.

“We’re doing everything we can,” said fill-in starter Miles “Deuce” McBride, who played a team-high 45 minutes in the loss to the Hawks. “We’re doing as much as we can recovery wise, the guys that are playing big minutes, and working on the chemistry — guys coming in and out. It’s tough but you’ve gotta keep on moving forward.”

The Knicks signed backup guard Shake Milton after he cleared waivers via the Detroit Pistons, but he did not play against the Hawks on Tuesday.

The Knicks now get two days of rest before hosting the Orlando Magic on Friday.

The Knicks are 0-3 against the Magic this season, including an 18-point loss in a game Brunson went for 33 points.

Brunson’s status is unknown for Friday against Orlando, adding to a growing list of reasons why the Knicks are freefalling in a dicey second half of the season.

Brunson sat against the Atlanta Hawks after a scary play in the opening moments of the Knicks’ matchup in Cleveland.

The star guard came off of a pin-down screen on the Knicks’ opening possession and hurt his knee while raising up for a foul line jump shot.

]He then hobbled to the sidelines, sat on the court and had a team trainer help assist him to the locker room.

An MRI on Brunson’s knee came back clean, but the star guard was unable to suit up against the Hawks on Tuesday.

“It is a bruise and it’s a lot better than it was, but we just want to make sure he’s completely ready,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said ahead of tipoff against the Hawks. “He’s feeling better. Just not quite there yet. … When he’s ready to go, he goes.

“In the meantime, just like what we did the last game: Deuce [McBride] get in there, get the job done. We’ve got Alec [Burks]. So we’ve got more than enough.”

Thibodeau said there was a sigh of relief when his star guard turned up without a severe injury.

“Yeah, and I think the same holds true for all: You don’t want to see any of your players get hurt,” he said. “I know the commitment that our guys have made, the sacrifices they’ve made. Obviously, you want to be at full strength.

“But injuries are part of the game and it’s ‘How quickly can we adapt as a team?’ That’s the challenge that we face. As I mentioned the other night, it’s been that way all year. Mitch [Robinson] went out, Isaiah [Hartenstein] got in there, got it done; then Isaiah had limitations, Jericho [Sims] went and Precious [Achiuwa] came so whatever we have, get in there and get it done.”

Brunson is the fourth current Knicks starter to sustain an injury.

The Knicks were already short their entire starting front court, including Mitchell Robinson (left ankle surgery), Julius Randle (dislocated right shoulder) and OG Anunoby (right elbow surgery) before Brunson came up hobbling in Cleveland on Sunday.

The first-time All-Star guard is averaging 27.2 points and 6.6 assists per game in New York this season and tied Milwaukee Buck’s star Damian Lillard for the Eastern Conference’s final All-Star starting backcourt spot this season.

Lillard got the nod amassing 700,000 more fan votes than Brunson even though Brunson won on both the player and media All-Star ballot.

The Knicks now have another star’s shoes to fill.

The Knicks have help to sustain his absence: Miles “Deuce” McBride has played well in his extended minutes after the Immanuel Quickley trade; the Knicks acquired scoring wing Alec Burks as part of the Bojan Bogdanovic deal with the Detroit Pistons; and the team introduced backup point guard Shake Milton after signing him to a free agent contract on Monday.

Milton was traded to the nine-win Pistons before negotiating a buyout and immediately joining the Knicks when he cleared waivers.

“Size. Versatility. Can play both positions,” Thibodeau said of his team’s newest addition. “He’s a guard. He’s been in the league for a while. I thought he had some really good stretches in Philadelphia. And we just like who he is.”

Milton marks the third midseason addition this Knicks team has made after trading for Anunoby, then Bogdonavic and Burks.

He is a career 35.7 percent three-point shooter and combo guard who spent the first five seasons of his career in Philadelphia before signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves over the summer.

The Wolves traded Milton to the Pistons in exchange for backup point guard Monte Morris.

“The situation in Detroit, knowing what direction they wanted to go (tanking for the draft),” Milton explained to reporters at his locker ahead of tipoff on Tuesday. “[I] just talked to my agent and the front office of the Knicks, and felt like it would be a good fit.”

Milton said a relationship with Knicks senior basketball advisor William Wesley fast-tracked his move to New York.

“Yeah most definitely. Just the comfortability,” he said. “I didn’t want any promises or anything like that. I knew my job was to come in, be a part of the team, work hard and be ready for any opportunity. Honestly that’s what I was looking for. Just to be able to join these guys, get under Coach Thibs and really just study, learn and be prepared.”

Milton said he has a good relationship with Brunson, who went to a couple youth basketball camps together. He and both Burks and Charlie Brown Jr. played together in Philadelphia, and he knows players like Anunoby, Donte DiVincenzo from their battles against one another as opponents.

He has a relationship with Julius Randle because both hang out in Dallas, Randle’s hometown.

Milton also said Thibodeau is the kind of coach he likes to play for.

“I don’t know, I feel like those are the type of coaches that I like, that I’m used to: old-school, tough, right to the point,” he said on Tuesday. “But it’s funny, you can kind of see the personality come out. And I haven’t even been here that long, but even at shoot around, he’s tough, he’s on guys, but at the same time he’s cracking jokes, too, so kinda able to see both sides of it. It’ll be fun.”

Milton joins a Knicks team that lost eight of the 11 games prior to Sunday’s victory over the Cavaliers.

The Knicks entered Milton’s Tuesday debut against the Atlanta Hawks as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, but only a half-game separates New York from No. 5 Philadelphia and there’s only 2.5 games worth of distance between the fourth seed and the eighth.

With Brunson joining a long list of Knicks starters on the injured list, Milton could play an integral role in helping the Knicks retain playoff standing in the second half of the season.

“I can tell — I haven’t been around too long but being out there at shootaround, you can tell guys are locked in,” he said. “Every win is important. I think that’s where everybody’s head is. Everybody’s gotta do whatever it takes for the team to help us win. You like being around an atmosphere like that.”

“I’ve gotten tremendous reports about Noah, him doing a great job down there in the G-league with Long Island, and I know he’ll be ready to play and ready to step in when his name is called,” interim head coach Kevin Ollie said.

Sharpe underwent imaging on his injured right wrist ahead of Tuesday’s game, according to Ollie. The team is still awaiting the results of his testing.

The 22-year-old suffered the injury with 9:20 left in the fourth quarter on Monday. After getting fouled on a dunk attempt in transition, he tried to hang on the rim for a moment to halt his momentum, but quickly lost his grip and wound up using both hands to cushion his fall.

Sharpe, who has averaged 7.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists across 46 games this season while shooting 58.3% from the field, missed 15 straight games from Jan. 11 — Feb. 10 because of a hyperextended left knee suffered on Jan. 7 against the Portland Trail Blazers.

THOMAS RAMPING UP

Cam Thomas missed his fifth straight game on Tuesday because of a right ankle sprain suffered late in last week’s road win over Memphis, but Ollie confirmed that the 22-year-old has been ramping up his activity in recent days.

Thomas was seen on a stationary bike, dribbling and dunking a basketball off his left foot after Monday’s shootaround in Brooklyn. He appeared to be in good spirits. Cam Johnson has started five straight games in Thomas’ place.

“He’s just getting better,” Ollie said of Thomas. “He’s ramping up his workouts and then keep leaning on our medical staff — and him also because he’s a big part of this — to let us know when he’s ready. But he is ramping up a little bit more than what he was doing prior.”

Thomas was averaging 16.4 points while shooting 39.7% from the field and 34.5% from 3-point range over his last five starts prior to injury. He missed nine straight games in November because of a left ankle sprain.

WILSON’S CONTRACT DETAILS

Rookie forward Jalen Wilson inked a three-year deal with the Nets last Friday after starting the season on a two-way contract.

While the full terms of Wilson’s agreement were not revealed, per team rules, Keith Smith of Spotrac reported on Tuesday that his team came out of Brooklyn’s non-taxpayer midlevel exception and that he will be paid $850K for the remainder of this season and will receive a guaranteed $75K next season.

The third season of Wilson’s deal, 2025-26, will be a team option for the Nets, per Smith.

According to the team’s latest injury report, Lonnie Walker IV is questionable because of a left ankle sprain entering Tuesday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Barclays Center, the second game of a back-to-back set for Brooklyn.

Ben Simmons (left lower back nerve impingement) and Cam Thomas (right ankle/midfoot sprain) will both miss their fifth straight games against the 76ers. And Day’Ron Sharpe, who suffered a right wrist contusion in Monday’s 106-102 loss, will join them on the inactive list. Walker’s status will become clearer as we inch closer to tip off.

Without Simmons and Sharpe available, two of the larger players at interim head coach Kevin Ollie’s disposal, Brooklyn called up rookie center Noah Clowney from the G League. The 19-year-old center has averaged 4.1 points, 1.9 rebound on 61.1% shooting across seven NBA appearances this season.

Center Nic Claxton played 33 minutes against Memphis, the lowest of any starter. Clowney has averaged 16.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 blocks in 16 starts at the G League level this season.

“Just like I said with Jalen Wilson, they’re just open to learning,” Ollie said when asked about Clowney’s development recently. “They’re open to be coached. They want to be better and they’re taking it personal, their development. You know, some people don’t take it personal. Some people come and go, but they’re taking it personal, like, ‘I’m going to own this, I’m going to get better. I’m going to listen to my coaches, but I’m going to do whatever it takes for me to get better. And if that’s being in the gym all day long, that’s being in the gym all day long. We need to take it personally,’ and that’s what we want.”

Speaking to reporters ahead of Monday’s game, Ollie said Simmons is considered day-to-day and he’s “still on the court”. Simmons’ agent, Bernie Lee, took responsibility for his client’s lingering back issues in an interview with SNY’s Ian Begley.

The 27-year-old has appeared in just 15 games for the Nets this season and 57 of 179 total games since being acquired by the Nets at the 2022 trade deadline.

“We continue to try and find non-surgical options to allow Ben to move forward on a permanent basis and that is where this is my responsibility and I am [the] one to blame,” Lee said.

“When I began working with Ben, I made a commitment to him that I would do everything I could to find the right answers and specialists for him to work with [in order] to move forward from the issues he has been having. Clearly it hasn’t happened, and that’s my responsibility.”

But the names on the back of the road team’s jerseys did not matter much in this matchup. The Nets, who fell behind 12-5 early, quickly learned that they were up against a far more prideful group compared to the one they beat by 25 points inside FedExForum a week ago. Brooklyn rallied from its early deficit to take a 31-29 lead into the second quarter and found itself engaged in a slugfest throughout the rest of regulation.

After 11 lead changes, 10 ties and a handful of brutal fouls, it was Memphis who escaped Barclays Center with a 106-102 victory, ending the Nets’ hopes for their first three-game winning streak since Dec. 2 — Dec. 8.

“We didn’t pay enough to get this win,” interim head coach Kevin Ollie said. “That goes for coaches, that goes for everybody. We’ve got to pay the cost for the win and that’s effort.”

The Grizzlies were up 80-77 at the end of the third quarter and matched Brooklyn’s 25 points over the final 12 minutes of action. The Nets went 7-of-19 from the field in the fourth quarter (3-of-12 from deep) and committed four turnovers. They had 16 turnovers total, which led to 16 points for Memphis.

Brooklyn (24-37) is now 2.5 games behind the Atlanta Hawks for 10th place in the Eastern Conference Standings. The Toronto Raptors are one game behind the Nets for 11th place.

“Every game means a whole lot at this point because of the position we put ourselves in,” Nic Claxton said. “So we need to win every single game, especially games like this — you knew they were missing a lot of dudes — so this loss is definitely going to sting but we have to flush it and get ready for tomorrow.”

Claxton led the Nets with 21 points, six rebounds and two assists in the loss. He was the only Brooklyn player to score at least 20 points on Monday night. Kennard — the only reliable scoring threat available for head coach Taylor Jenkins — paced Memphis with 25 points and six 3-pointers. He went 8-of-11 from the field and 6-of-9 from deep.

Ben Simmons and Cam Thomas both missed their fourth straight game against the Grizzlies.

While it was an evenly played game across the board, poor shooting in the opening minutes, horrendous free throw accuracy and an inability to control the glass, ultimately doomed the Nets. The Grizzlies won the rebounding battle 51-33 and had 15 offensive rebounds that contributed to 25 second-chance points.

“Maybe [we] relaxed a little bit,” said Mikal Bridges, who had five rebounds in 39 minutes. “But yeah, they just played harder than us. I think they outrebounded us by a lot. I take a lot of credit on both ends – defensively as well – just boxing out, not getting the rebound and stuff like that. So it’s just tough.”

The Nets attempted eight more free throws than Memphis, but Memphis still had one more make than them at the charity stripe. Brooklyn went 17-of-30 from the line while the Grizzlies went 18-of-22. That, and the rebounding woes, were ultimately the difference on Monday night.

“The game makes you pay when you’re not locked in,” Cam Johnson said. “I thought our focus was higher the last couple games and in this one it slipped a little bit. So it’s on us, we gotta be a lot better.”

The Nets will return to the court Tuesday against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second game of a back-to-back set. Brookyn beat a shorthanded 76ers squad without Joel Embiid 136-121 on Feb. 3 in Philadelphia.

“We got to execute better, we got to make free throws, we got to double down on all the details,” Ollie said. “We didn’t do that tonight and this is what happens

It is hard to win in the NBA with little defensive resistance.

“Yeah, we watched film and it was pretty, pretty nasty [and] ugly and i think we learned from it,” Dennis Schröder said.

However, Brooklyn has been a much better defensive team since returning from that disastrous four-game road trip where its only win came against a severely undermanned Memphis Grizzlies team — the same group it hosted at Barclays Center on Monday. The Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks by 27 points last Thursday and bested them by 12 points on Saturday.

The Nets did not allow Atlanta to score a single fastbreak point on Saturday after giving up 14 on Thursday. The Hawks were limited to just 43.5% shooting (74-of-170) across both meetings. Some of the tendencies Ollie has been trying to plant since taking over for Jacque Vaughn after the All-Star break are beginning to blossom.

“First of all, we’re sprinting back, we’re taking pride in that,” Ollie said. “I keep telling you, we’re planting seeds, and sometimes when you plant seeds you don’t know when they’re going to blossom. It’s your job to keep planting them and not get distracted by naysayers saying you’re doing the wrong thing but knowing that you’re doing the right things and you just got to continue to plug away at that. You can’t get distracted.

“There can be some things that you get distracted by, but we know we was planting the right things, and we were demanding the right things and we just got to go out there and execute them. And I think our guys did that well in Atlanta, not saying we’re going to do that every game and give up zero transition [points], but you see the fruit of their labor coming to fruition.”

Greater levels of energy and focus are also factors that have played into the Nets’ recent defensive surge. Ollie called maintaining those things on a game-to-game basis an “inside job”.

“We’ve got to take care of what’s inside this locker room, and keep playing the right way, keep playing with our winning habits that we’re starting to establish and build a foundation,” Ollie said. “So, we’re not looking past anybody. We’re taking care of our business and standing on that with our standards, and that’s what we’re going to continue to have no matter who we’re playing.”

But as good as Brooklyn has been at that end of the court during their current homestand, Ollie knows that there is another level they can reach. It starts with better connectivity and continuing to push forward through adversity.

“I think you can never be 100% connected; during lulls, during things that happen in a game that’s not seen all the time – and you can’t prepare for it,” Ollie said. “It just happens — how do you respond?… Things happen in the game, and how we respond and how we stay in the center of a hurricane is what I really try to preach. And that’s like the calmest place with all the distractions going on. Can we calm each other down? Can we challenge each other, and no one takes it personal. I think that’s another [area of] growth for us.”

SIMMONS’ TIMELINE UNCLEAR

Ben Simmons missed his fourth straight game on Monday because of a lower back nerve impingement.

The first three games he missed during his most recent inactive streak was because of leg soreness. However, the Nets clarified on Sunday that the current leg issues stemmed from the same lower back nerve impingement injury that forced him to miss 38 straight games earlier in the season.

The 27-year-old has appeared in just 15 games for the Nets this season and 57 of 178 total games since being acquired by Brooklyn at the 2022 trade deadline. Ollie did not have any updates on Simmons’ status ahead of Monday’s game.

“We were just trying to get to the source of it and that’s why the change of the wording was,” Ollie said. “But he’s still day-to-day, he’s still on the court, and hopefully we can get him back soon and get him ready for this playoff push that we have in March and April.”

And how do the Nets, as a team, keep an unselfish mentality without their best distributor on the court?

“I mean, just pushing the pace,” Schröder said. “When we get stops, I think everybody just running, kick the ball ahead and make the right basketball decision. Sometimes Clax will get 20 or 25 points, and next night it’s Mikal. I think it’s really hard to scout that, you know, when you don’t know who is really aggressive that night. And just you know, playing the game of basketball the right way always gives you a chance to win in this league.”

Simmons, who has appeared in just 15 games for the Nets this season, left last Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves with 8:04 left in the third quarter and did not return. He was listed as questionable because of leg soreness entering the team’s next game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Feb. 26, but wound up playing 14 minutes off the bench and contributed four points, six rebounds and three assists.

The 27-year-old has not played in both sides of a back-to-back sets this season, so it was not surprising to see him sit against the Orlando Magic on Feb. 27. However, Simmons remained sidelined in both games against the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday and Saturday because of leg soreness. He was considered day-to-day, according to interim head coach Kevin Ollie.

The Nets once again listed Simmons as questionable on Sunday night but revealed that the leg soreness he has experienced in recent days is connected to the lower back nerve impingement injury that forced him to miss 38-straight games earlier in the season. He was officially ruled out after Monday’s shootaround in Brooklyn.

Simmons has played in just 57 of 178 total games since being acquired by the Nets at the 2022 trade deadline. He has averaged 6.1 points, 7.9 assists and 5.7 rebounds this season while shooting 58.1% from the field. If his nerve impingement injury is beginning to flare up again, there is no telling when he will return to the court, based on his history.

Cam Thomas will also miss his fourth straight game on Monday because of a right ankle sprain and is also considered day-to-day. However, at this point it feels like he will be back on the court before Simmons. He was seen on the stationary bike during shootaround and also threw down a dunk off his left leg before reporters were escorted out of the practice gym.

Brooklyn has a 7-5 record without Thomas this season and is 17-28 without Simmons.

Staying on the injury front, rookie guard Dariq Whitehead, who underwent season-ending surgery in late January to address stress reaction in his left shin, was seen walking around on the practice court without a boot.