CHICAGO — The injuries are mounting, as are the losses.
The decimated Nets dropped their third straight game Monday night, falling to the Bulls 128-102 before 19,131 at United Center.
The skid matched the Nets’ worst of the season.
Essentially so did their injury list, missing eight players — including starters Cam Thomas, Dorian Finney-Smith, Ben Simmons and now Cam Johnson, the latter a late scratch due to a sprained left ankle.
Rookie head coach Jordi Fernandez has been forced to shuffle and reshuffle his lineup, but never more than Monday on the tail end of a back-to-back.
No amount of shuffle was going to help the hand he was dealt.
“Well, right now we’re in a situation where we have new lineups almost every game,” Fernandez said. “Those type of injuries, especially ones that you cannot control, the ankles or the knees, that just forced us to have the next man mentality, which lately I think we’ve been competitive. We’ve played a very good team the last two games.
“We couldn’t get the win [Sunday]. But last game, I was very proud of the guys after watching the film; the fight, the competitiveness. Still some things we could have done better, especially offensively, but we were facing one of the biggest teams, physical size, all that. So obviously, we’re watching how could we have done things differently. But very proud of the guys.”
The Nets (9-13) weren’t facing a good team on Monday. But what’s left of them — already committed to a rebuild — certainly wouldn’t fit that description either.
Dennis Schroder and Nic Claxton were the only regular starters available, and Fernandez handed Keon Johnson his first start as a Net alongside Jaylen Martin and Jalen Wilson.
It was the eighth straight game they’d used a different starting five, and even a stellar night from Schroder couldn’t prevent the blowout.
Neither could big man Day’Ron Sharpe, returning from a hamstring injury to make his season debut .
Schroder tallied 16 points, 10 assists and no turnovers, and second-year guard Dariq Whitehead — who essentially lost his rookie campaign to injuries — had an eye-opening night.
In just his fifth NBA game, he had 18 points on 6-for-10 from deep. At 20 years and 123 days old, he was just three days older than Clowney to be the youngest player in franchise history with at least five 3-pointers.
But the Nets allowed 52.2 percent from the field in a game that got out of hand early. Clinging to a tenuous 42-37 second-quarter lead after a 3-pointer from Shake Milton (14 points, six rebounds), the Nets surrendered an extended 28-10 run that spanned the half.
By the time veteran center Nikola Vucevic (21 points, 10 rebounds) capped the run with a 3-pointer off a Josh Giddey feed, the Nets found themselves down 65-52 with 10:18 left in the third quarter.
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The rest was garbage time. The deficit swelled to 105-80 on a Giddey jumper with 8:44 to play, and the threadbare Nets didn’t have a run left in them.
“We’re still the same team, and we’re going to do what we do,” said Fernandez. “Obviously, we have teams with players in different roles. For instance, we’re missing Cam Thomas, who’s been scoring very efficiently. But then one or two other guys will be able to play.
“Are they going to be Cam Thomas? No. But we’ll still pressure the ball. We’ll still be active to get deflections. We’ll still try to run to our spots. will still cut through the paint, reverse the ball, try to get to the right shots. So one way or the other, still play with our identity, play extremely hard.”
