SAN FRANCISCO – The Nets were already shorthanded and lost their best hand. But they refused to lose the game.

Despite placing Cam Johnson on their injured list, the Nets stormed back from a 128-120 deficit to beat Golden State on Sunday in front of a sellout crowd at Chase Center.

With Johnson out of the game with a sprained right ankle – and Nic Claxton, Dorian Finney-Smith, Ben Simmons and Noah Clowney already sidelined – the Nets trailed by 18 points in the third quarter. But they went on a 27-6 run over the next nine minutes to take the lead and never let it go.

Dennis Schroder scored 23 of his 31 points in the second half, added seven assists and five rebounds and provided a much-needed lead later on.

“He took control of the game and took the lead. Place all of them in the correct place on both ends of the floor. And that’s the kind of leadership, it’s like having a coach there,” Jordi Fernandez said of Schroder. “And when something like that happens, I just let him do his thing.”

Schröder accounted for 65.9 percent of the Nets’ points in the fourth quarter (17 points, four assists for 10 points scored).

Jalen Wilson stepped up in Johnson’s absence with a season-high 18 points. And Ziaire Williams — forced to play center as the Nets’ frontcourt was decimated — had 19 points, nine boards and four assists.

Cam Thomas scored 23 points but conspicuously never came off the bench in the fourth quarter as the Nets (8-10) earned their second straight win.

“I ended up taking (Thomas) out because he made a foul, he was tired, and then he was ready to go and I felt like it wasn’t right,” Fernandez said. “And I just wanted to protect him from himself.”

They hit 20 of 45 from deep, matching their season high. But they wasted that shot in a loss to Denver. They closed this one.

Western Conference leader Golden State fell to 12-5 and was impressed.

An injury situation that was already so bad that the 6-foot-1, 220-pound Williams was actually forced to start at small ball center got exponentially worse.

Johnson averaged 19.1 points – and 27.3 in his last four while shooting .579 percent from deep. But he sprained his ankle in the first quarter when he fell on Draymond Green’s foot and appeared to be disabled for the final 7:22 of the first half before sitting out the second half.

But the Nets circled the wagons and won.

They trailed 86-68 on a Trayce Jackson-Davis layup with 7:13 left in the third quarter. Fernandez immediately called a timeout to stem the tide. In the end, he completely turned it around.

The Nets went on an extended 27-6 run over the next nine minutes into the fourth quarter.

Schroder – who missed Sunday’s win and was questionable with a right ankle injury – came back to life and led the blitz tournament. He scored 92 points with a 3-pointer off a feed from Tyrese Martin with 11:10 to play. And he hit a 27-footer off a Williams pass to cap the run and give the Nets a 95-92 lead with 9:43 to play.

They spent the rest of the evening fending off Golden State’s attempts to take it.

“If you look at the second half, trailing by 18, we won the third at the end and won the fourth at the end,” Fernandez said. “So it was a complete team effort, undermanned. And these are fantastic games.”