The undermanned Nets have now played 31 games this season, and first-year coach Jordi Fernandez has already used 16 different starting lineups.

Brooklyn impressively picked up just enough wins to make it past the play-in cutoff into the start of the new year, but the Nets couldn’t stop Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs on Friday night, falling 96-87 at Barclays Center.

Starters Cam Johnson (hip contusion) and Ben Simmons (lower back maintenance) joined leading scorer Cam Thomas (hamstring) from the Nets’ lineup.

After scoring 42 points with 18 rebounds and four blocked shots in the Christmas loss to the Knicks at the Garden, Wembanyama scored 15 of his 19 points after halftime.

Former St. John’s star Julian Champagnie scored 18 goals off the bench for San Antonio (16-15).

Veteran guard Shake Milton made his first start of the season after scoring 14 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter in Thursday’s comeback win at Milwaukee.

He contributed 16 points and 12 assists, but the Nets slipped to 12-19 heading into Sunday’s game in Orlando.

Nic Claxton had 11 points and 10 points in his match against Wembanyama, and Keon Johnson scored 15 of his team-high 25 points in the fourth quarter for Brooklyn.

Dorian Finney-Smith returned after missing three games with a calf problem but managed just two points in 27 minutes.

“CJ hurt his knee on his hip (in Milwaukee) so he’s going to be out and like we’ve done before, it’s a next-man-up mentality,” Fernandez said of Cam Johnson before the game. “Any shots he should take, someone else has to take them.”

Milton is among those playing regularly and contributing despite a series of injuries, especially since point guard Dennis Schroder was traded to the Warriors earlier this month.

Thomas, the Nets’ leading scorer with 24.7 points per game, is still close to returning from a hamstring injury that has sidelined him since November 25th.

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Milton and Keon Johnson were used as starters in the backfield, while Simmons also sat out the end of two games to rest his troublesome lower back.

Wembanyama threw down a dunk in the first minute, but the 7-foot French prodigy was outscored 6-2 by Claxton in the opening session as the Nets took a 22-11 lead after 12 minutes.

The Spurs missed 21 of 25 field goal attempts in the period and were only able to stay within single digits when Keldon Johnson sank a midrange shot at the buzzer.

It was still the fewest points Brooklyn has allowed in a quarter this season and the lowest first-quarter point total since the Hornets also averaged 11 points in April 2021.

The Spurs scored the first nine points and opened with a 14-2 spurt, but barely three minutes into the second quarter they took a one-point lead.

Champagnie scored 10 goals, including three 3-pointers, during which time the teams were tied at 41 at halftime.

Wembanyama entered the game early in the third period with an inside-outside dunk and a corner 3 for a one-point lead, and then he hit two more throws from distance to extend the Spurs’ lead to 74-62 last Quarter.