SAN FRANCISCO – The Nets were already short of players and lost their strongest hand. But they refused to lose the match.

Despite adding Cam Johnson to their pending injured list, the Nets stormed back for a 128-120 win at Golden State on Sunday in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,064 at Chase Center.

With Johnson forced 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 in the third quarter. But they went on a 27-6 run over the next nine minutes to seize the lead, and never relinquished it.

Dennis Schroder scored 23 of his 31 points in the second half, adding seven assists, five rebounds and some much-needed leadership.

“He took control of the match and took the lead. Put everyone in the right place at both ends of the floor. And that’s the kind of leadership, it’s like having a coach on the floor,” Jordi Fernandez said of Schroder. “And when those things happen, I just let him do his thing.”

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

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

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

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

They went 20 of 45 from deep, matching their season high. But they squandered that shooting effort in a loss to Denver. They closed this one.

Western Conference leader Golden State fell to 12-5 and remained underwhelmed.

An injury situation that was already so dire that the 6-foot-4, 205-pound Williams was effectively pushed into small-ball center only got exponentially worse.

Johnson is averaging 19.1 points – and 27.3 over his last four, while shooting 0.579 percent from deep. But he sprained his ankle when he landed on Draymond Green’s foot in the first quarter, and appeared to hobble 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 with 7:13 left in the third quarter on a Trayce Jackson-Davis layup. Fernandez immediately called a timeout to turn the tide. He finally turned it all around.

The Nets put together an extended 27-6 run over the next nine minutes, stretching into the fourth quarter.

Schroder – who had missed Sunday’s win and was questionable with a sore right ankle – came alive to lead the blitz. He knotted it at 92-all on a 3-pointer off a Tyrese Martin feed with 11:10 to play. And he hit a 27-footer off a pass from Williams to end the run and give the Nets a 95-92 lead with 9:43 to play.

They spent the rest of the evening holding off Golden State’s attempts to seize it.

“If you look at the second half, you were down by 18, you ended up winning the third, you ended up winning the fourth,” Fernandez said. “So it was a complete team effort, in short. And these are great games.”