Hamstrung James Harden has been ruled out of Thursday’s game against Charlotte, missing only his third game since coming to Brooklyn.

The Nets can only hope being cautious with his tight right hamstring will keep him from having to miss too many more, considering they’re 0-2 in games he’s missed. They are expected to get veteran big man LaMarcus Aldridge, who is cleared to make his Brooklyn debut against the Hornets; but Harden is irreplaceable.

Harden was forced out of Wednesday’s come-from-behind victory over his former Houston Rockets team late in the third quarter. He tested it on the sidelines but was held out and had to watch as his current team rallied to beat his old one.

“We’re gonna monitor it. We’ll see how he feels (Thursday) morning…We feel optimistic it’s not a long-term thing and we’ll just monitor it,” Nets coach Steve Nash had said at the time. “I think he told the trainer when he was on the sideline, and they went back to look at it, and they just decided that it wasn’t worth risking it. And we’ll just see how it feels in the morning and go from there.”

Apparently Harden didn’t feel good enough in the morning to face the visiting Hornets; and he’s renowned for being an ironman who doesn’t load manage or sit out games.

The Nets were just 7-6 before acquiring Harden, the 11th-best record in the NBA. But they’re 22-5 when at least two of their Big Three play, showing the impact he’s had.

Brooklyn lost to Washington on Jan. 31 when Harden was inactive. And when he had a sore neck on March 24, Nash said the Nets held him out to protect him from himself. They ended up getting drilled by 30 against Utah.

Kevin Durant injured his hamstring and hasn’t played since Feb. 13 at Golden State, although sports medicine expert Dr. Jesse Morse did tweet of Harden that “He is likely dealing with a grade 1 hamstring strain. The Nets will likely be really smart with him. Chance he only misses 1-2 games.”

That would be encouraging, and certainly well-earned. But any injury to the MVP candidate is worrisome, especially one as tricky as a hamstring.

“Any time someone goes down, it’s very concerning,” Kyrie Irving said. “Any time someone doesn’t play, we definitely have to have that mentality that we’re still gonna play at a very high level, so just gotta adjust, man. It’s not gonna get any easier, so when we’re out there, we obviously know the guys that are missing.

“Guys that — you say guys, but KD specifically — him missing significant time, we miss him. We can’t wait for him to get back, literally. But we’re all staying patient. We know what he brings to the table, we know the respect that he garners from all of us in terms of a leader on our team, but we’ve got to figure it out, game-to-game, until he’s back. James is out, for however long, and I pray he’s not, and we’ve just got to figure it out.”

Aldridge hasn’t played since March 1, ironically against Brooklyn. But he’s shaken off the rust and was cleared by the performance team to make his Nets debut. How he is deployed behind the likes of DeAndre Jordan and Nic Claxton bears watching.

Blake Griffin will sit the tail end of the back to back as the Nets manage his left knee.