Fans who stretched their budgets to splurge for tickets to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis face a star-filled team that included Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons might not have been pacified. The quartet sat with various injuries, the Lakers appearing to give James a breather before a quick turnaround for Tuesday’s showdown with the Knicks at the Garden. 

Two of Monday’s stars were the often out-of-the-rotation Cam Thomas and Patty Mills. At least those fans witnessed a chaotic Nets victory. 

The Nets dominated the first half, were inept for much of the third quarter but regained control in the fourth quarter to survive with a messy, 121-104 win over the depleted Lakers at Barclays Center in front of a sellout, disappointed crowd of 17,924. 

Kyrie Irving, the lone marquee Brooklyn player remaining, scored 26 points and got plenty of help from the bench — especially Thomas and Mills, who scored 21 points apiece as part of a 66-point night from the reserves — as the Nets escaped a game that included four technical fouls and plenty of sloppy play. 

“It’s why I love team basketball,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said after the bench scored its second-most points of the season. “It’s doing your part, not knowing when you’re going to be called on.” 

The Nets (31-19) improved to 4-6 without Durant, whose sprained MCL is due to be evaluated early next week. 

When Brooklyn needed a run after a miserable third quarter, it turned to some unlikely contributors. Mills and Thomas, afterthoughts for much of this season, nailed back-to-back 3s early in the period, pushing the Nets’ lead to eight. After a Lakers timeout, Yuta Watanabe (12 points) converted a fast-break layup, and the Nets could begin to exhale. 

Injuries to Durant, Simmons and T.J. Warren prompted the Nets to dust off players who might have attracted cobwebs at times this season. 

“That’s very difficult. That’s why when people from the outside try to criticize us players like that, I don’t listen to them,” Thomas said after draining 8 of 13 shots. “They don’t know nothing about that. Nobody can go from sitting down a few games, getting cold, to getting up and making every shot.” 

Thomas played one of his best games of the season and scored 11 of his points in the fourth quarter, when the second-year guard’s treys and runners allowed the Nets to expand the lead. 

It was a good day for Nets sophomores. Without Simmons (knee), Day’Ron Sharpe stepped up as backup center and set a new career-high with 14 rebounds, eight offensive. The second-year big man added eight points, including a thunderous put-back dunk early in the fourth to push the Nets’ lead to 10, and a pair of blocks. 

Mills sunk 7 of 12 from the field and 4 of 7 from beyond the arc, taking the spotlight off Seth Curry and Joe Harris (a combined 1-for-10 from 3). His 21 points were his second-highest output of the season. 

“Guys are in and out, so it’s going to leave opportunities for guys that are working extremely hard,” said Irving, who snapped a streak of six straight games scoring 30 points because others picked up the load. “It’s nothing but joy in my eyes when I see them get rewarded for the hard work that they put in.” 

The Nets led by as many as 19 in a first half in which the game often felt like an exhibition. All 11 Nets who were active played — and scored — in the first two quarters. 

The Nets held the out-of-sorts Lakers — without their pair of superstars and perhaps still reeling from a controversial and draining loss in Boston on Saturday — to 16 first-quarter points, the Nets’ best defensive first period of the season. 

But the Lakers reeled off the first 14 points of the third quarter, helping Los Angeles escape the hole with a 60-58 edge. They kept adding from there and outscored the Nets 36-15 in the first nine-and-a-half minutes of the period. 

The Lakers led by as many as seven in the quarter before the Nets clawed back. Thomas ran off five straight points to give the Nets an 83-82 edge. Sharpe padded the lead with a put-back, and the Nets had some breathing room that expanded once the fourth arrived. 

“It’s the mindset of being able to stay ready,” Mills said, “so you don’t have to be surprised when your number is called.”