ORLANDO, Fla. – As soon as Cam Thomas returned, the Nets offense took off. But in the end, it was their defense that let them down against the Magic.

Playing in his first game since suffering a hamstring injury before Thanksgiving, the guard never seemed to miss a beat, even though the Nets failed to hold onto a 21-point lead or stop Cole Anthony on the game-winning drive that put them in a 102-101 defeat in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,397 at the Kia Center.

Anthony had 10 points, all in the second half, after Jalen Suggs left the game with a right wrist sprain. He was 0.8 seconds ahead of the winner.

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Thomas conveniently missed the final shot at the buzzer. But his return bodes well for the Nets.

He contributed 25 points, six rebounds and six assists off the bench under a strict minutes limit. But every minute he played was huge for the Nets, who traded starting power forward Dorian Finney-Smith hours before game time. And since point guard Dennis Schroder had already played away earlier in the month, they needed Thomas’ scoring touch.

“We need CT to be CT,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said. “We all know how efficient he was. His super strength scores. And it must continue to be efficient and even more efficient. And then he has to get better as a player and he has to make further progress defensively. So this is a plan for him.

“I’m happy to have him back. A guy that you know can score a ton and we can go through him, play pick-and-roll on the secondary and just put him in action. So I’m excited. I can just sit back and let him do his thing, so it’s not like I do much.”

Thomas had missed the last 13 games with a strained left hamstring at Golden State. The Nets were 8-10 with the eighth-best offensive rating after that win over the Warriors, but have since gone just 4-9 with a second-to-last offensive rating.

The impact Thomas’ return had on the offense was striking.

“We’re excited to have him back,” Fernandez said. “His teammates were excited. He was excited, had a smile on his face. So it’s a good day for us.”

But not a great ending.

Orlando had to do without Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero and the Nets still lost 4-0 to the Magic.

After Jonathan Isaac’s layup, the Nets trailed 18-21 with 3:15 left in the first and held the Magic scoreless for the next 4:19.

The Nets pressured Orlando with five turnovers to go 0-3. And when Thomas found Nic Claxton for an alley-oop, they had secured a 32-21 lead with 11:11 left in the half.

The Nets led by as many as 21, 71-50, with 7:55 left in the third period on Keon Johnson’s free throws.

They still led 97-80 when Ben Simmons hit Jalen Wilson for a 3-pointer with 7:16 to play. Then they gave up the lead.

The Nets went on a 20-2 run, with Wilson Goga fouling Bitadze and Bitadze making a free throw with 17.7 seconds left in the game.

Wilson managed to get to the goal line himself and sank both to put the Nets back in the lead with 6.2 seconds left in regulation. But there would be no victory or even overtime as Anthony beat his man and got into the lane for a four-footer.

Thomas missed a desperation 3 at the buzzer.