#Nets ‘may not get any games with our whole roster’

Kyrie Irving was in, while Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin were back out.

The Nets continued the game of musical chairs with their lineup, using a team-record 29th different starting five and dressing just 10 active players for Wednesday’s 123-117 loss at Philadelphia.

With just 17 games left on the schedule, and fans sweating over whether that’s enough time to build cohesion with a fully healthy roster, coach Steve Nash offered a sobering warning. Considering how many injuries the Nets have had — James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge, Spencer Dinwiddie, Tyler Johnson and Chris Chiozza were all out — there’s no guarantee they’ll ever be 100 percent healthy.

But the Nets are determined to work with what they’ve got.

“We may not get any games with our whole roster. Nothing is promised tomorrow,” Nash said. “I don’t want to worry about or be concerned about things that are out of our control. I also don’t want any excuses. You start playing that game where it’s like, well we haven’t had any games with our full roster. But in a sense, that’s irrelevant. We don’t control that.”

“We just keep moving forward, keep trying to get better, and if we get a full roster that would be great and if we don’t we keep plugging away every day.I’m not going to worry about when we’ll have the full roster.We’ll just chip away every day with whoever is available. Continue to build this thing and if we’re fortunate to have everyone back then that will be a blessing.”

Durant and Griffin have been protected from playing back-to-backs. Harden has been dealing with a Grade 1 hamstring strain, and won’t even be reevaluated until the Nets return to Brooklyn. Aldridge has a non-COVID-19 illness.

Chiozza had surgery to repair a fractured third metacarpal of the right hand. The procedure was performed by Dr. Michelle Carlson at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and Nash said the guard was lost “basically for the regular season.”

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DeAndre Jordan had 12 points and 14 rebounds going up against Joel Embiid in his second game back in the rotation after sitting out five straight games. Nash praised Jordan’s effort, but Irving wasn’t surprised.

“It’s not really a surprise,” Irving said. “But what’s a big surprise is just seeing the attitude towards NBA players in general in terms of when they don’t play, it’s just like, ‘He’s washed’ or ‘This guy doesn’t do this.’ I’ll leave that for the fandom and the audience that enjoys NBA basketball games and loves criticizing all of us — ‘He can’t play anymore!’ — we see all of it inevitably.

“We work so hard every single day diligently taking care of our bodies, taking years off of our legs trying to get ready for these games and you see an NBA player go out and play well: It’s just in his DNA. He’s been playing basketball since he was in seventh, eighth grade. So, it’s not hard to be at a high level and stay there consistently. But we want to see him carry on that effort consecutively into the next game, whether he’s playing or not.”