The Brooklyn Nets continue to eke out gutty, gritty wins.

Still in first place at 21-8, the Nets knocked off the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday, their second win with about half of their roster on the shelf after being placed in COVID-19 protocols. James Harden is the biggest name they're missing. LaMarcus Aldridge, Jevon Carter, DeAndre’ Bembry, James Johnson, Paul Millsap and Bruce Brown are also out. You already know about Kyrie Irving (unvaccinated) and Joe Harris (ankle surgery).

Harden averages 20.8 points, 7.9 boards and 9.8 dimes per game. He's a critical component to this team and serves as their point guard while Irving is out. Without him, it places a much bigger strain on the rest of the rotation.

Recently, head coach Steve Nash opened up about what it has been like navigating these uncertain times. It's wild to hear a little bit of what it's like running a ball club in the midst of a global health crisis.

“The question is we're above the threshold [for the number of players you need to have active in order to play an NBA game],” said Nash, “so to speak, which is positive. At the same time we're barely above the threshold, so what toll does that take on our players? Is it better to be over the threshold and to not be playing until you have a healthy roster? Or is it better to have enough to play but to be short-handed and the burden and the toll that takes on these guys and knowing that you're gonna have guys coming back who haven't been able to practice or play basketball? So it is definitely tricky to navigate.”

Nash is talking about whether or not it might be better to not play these games when they have so few bodies in uniform. Things have been so fluid that Nash was actually prepared to have Harden and Bruce Brown in the lineup before Brooklyn played the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday, but learned one hour before tip off those two had tested positive as well.

How does something like that even happen so close to game time?

“We'll be tested in the morning,” said Nash before the Nets defeated the Sixers on Thursday. “So the results come in in the late afternoon, evening, so that was the results that we were waiting on. So I assume all the results form this morning are in but I'm not positive.”

How has this outbreak altered their routine?

“Right before the game we'll meet,” said Nash. “We'll watch some film, we'll walk-through quickly, but we definitely are erring on the side of having less as far as little time in concentrated group settings. So it's not the end of the world but its not the normal routine.”

How about Harden, and Aldridge and the rest of the guys who are in protocol? Last we heard, most of them were asymptomatic. So are they active, working out, or just laying in bed?

“I don't even know that we are there yet,” said Nash on Thursday evening. “They can't, I don't believe they can go into any facility in New York. But they can work out at home if they don't have symptoms. But as far as…I don't know what type of equipment or space they have in their homes or apartments, whatever it may be. But as this period drags on we'll have to obviously start to get them back to moving and getting themselves prepared to return to play.”

The Nets are admittedly not experts in this stuff, so they're trying to pull it together and learn on the fly. Durant is willing to carry them, but they seem to be wrestling with just how much of a burden they feel comfortable asking him to carry.

Trying to win games with just eight or nine players puts a big burden on the 33-year-old superstar. Durant is now first in points per game (29.6 ppg) in the league and fourth in minutes per game (37 mpg), the latter of which is the most he's averaged since his MVP campaign in 2013-14.

“It’s a really important topic,” admitted Nash, regarding the minutes and scoring burden KD has undertaken. “I don’t know if we can continue to lean on him the way we have. It doesn’t feel right.”

The part that does feel right? Winning. As long as that continues, the Nets will let the rest of it fall into place.