A fourth-quarter burst from Spencer Dinwiddie was exactly what the Nets needed.

They needed the pair of off-balanced, far-from-simple shots — as well as each of his 13 points that frame — to defeat the Bulls, 116-105, on Thursday night at Barclays Center. They needed something to show that this reworked lineup, sans their now-traded superstars, could actually work in the short term.

And, if the Nets (33-22) make anything out of the rest of their season, they’ll need stretches like Dinwiddie’s, with a deep rotation filling gaps that emerge, to happen repeatedly. This instance helped prevent a three-game losing streak.

“We just found a way,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said. “We started a different lineup, which we haven’t started the entire year. No panic from our guys.”

The way the Nets managed to defeat the Bulls on Thursday night was fitting for their last 72 hours: weirdly chaotic and at times nonsensical. There was no Kyrie Irving. No Kevin Durant, either. Cam Thomas — seemingly a breakout candidate with three consecutive 40-point games — didn’t score in the first half.

When the chaos of the trade deadline settled, the Nets were left with a shell of their team, at least for the short term, than what they had just 72 hours prior. They lost nearly 50 percent of their scoring. They didn’t even have a chance to practice with Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith, only walking through plays after the pair cleared physicals.

“And now they’re in the starting lineup a night later,” Joe Harris said.

Their start wasn’t exactly smooth, either. The Bulls led by seven after the opening quarter and extended that lead to their largest of the game — 13 points — when Thomas and Ben Simmons messed up an inbounds pass. They were the only two, besides Chicago’s Alex Caruso, in the backcourt. But Caruso still managed to steal the ball and make the layup.

The Nets still found a way to lead at halftime because of Harris and his six 3-pointers. He kept hitting from his spot on the right wing, and he even launched one from the top of the key — with a defender’s hand in his face — as the shot clock expired.

That served as the foundation for Brooklyn in the first half, especially with Thomas’ disappearance from the scoresheet. The Nets built their lead to double digits in the opening minutes of the third, until Zach LaVine, who had a game-high 38 points, pulled Chicago back into the game. It wasn’t that any shot stood out as a highlight-worthy, or any distance otherworldly, but LaVine reminded the Nets of the star power they’re now missing.

“We don’t have the legit superstar talent, where you can just toss them the ball and know that they’re probably gonna take and make a lot of tough shots,” Harris said. “So it’s more of a by-committee.”

Then, Dinwiddie started his tear in the fourth. He said postgame that his talent has always been to get into the paint and make decisions from there. Yuta Watanabe connected on four 3s and finished with 14 points. Thomas recovered to score 20 points across the final 24 minutes, too.

And the new-look rotation from Vaughn — a work in progress for now, with so many new pieces assembled — needed contributions from nearly everyone to make the first edition of their patchwork successful.

“We’re gonna have a choice throughout the course of the game to try to get an advantage, and our ability to shoot the basketball tonight — over 40 3s — that was our advantage,” Vaughn said. “But I think you saw the versatility and the size come into play tonight, where we didn’t get destroyed rebounding-wise and shot discrepancy.”

Nic Claxton didn’t play after being evaluated pregame for “hamstring awareness.”