Cam Thomas followed up three straight games of scoring more than 40 points by dropping 20 in the second half Thursday night against the Bulls.

Despite his high-scoring ways, Thomas found himself out of the starting lineup in the Nets’ 101-98 loss to the 76ers on Saturday night at Barclays Center, as coach Jacque Vaughn went with a starting five of Mikal Bridges, Johnson, Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and Nic Claxton.

“I had two honest conversations already with Royce [O’Neale] and Cam Thomas and what the expectations are for them,’’ Vaughn said. “It doesn’t mean I love them any less. I’m always looking out for the best of the group and right now this is. We’ll see how it plays out.”

Vaughn acknowledged how well Thomas, who scored 14 points in 18:06 off the bench, had played of late.

“We’ve seen him garner a lot of attention as a starter, so I don’t think that changes,” Vaughn said. “It will be great to see that against the second unit. He’s a guy we can put the ball in his hand when we need a bucket. He has confidence to come off the bench and score. We’ll try to use him in that role to take advantage of some matchups. He’s someone we’re gonna continue to use, it’s just now he’s coming off the bench — for now.”

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While the Nets sound optimistic about the team’s future, the loss of the star power brought by Durant and Irving is already being felt. ESPN announced on Saturday that it has replaced their game on Wednesday against the Heat to a Cleveland-Philadelphia matchup.

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Bridges hadn’t missed a game in his NBA career before being forced to sit out Thursday after being acquired by the Nets.

Johnson, his teammate on the Suns who joined him in being dealt to Brooklyn, said he joked about how much Bridges wanted to play despite having just arrived in the trade.

“He was shaking,’’ Johnson said of Bridges’ reaction before the Nets played the Bulls on Thursday.

“It was a little hard for him. He was saying, ‘Can we play?’ ”

Bridges acknowledged the streak’s importance, but made it clear that wasn’t the only part that was critical to him.

“I’m excited to be here,’’ Bridges said. “I wanted to play in that last game and it was about the streak, but I wanted to be out there with the new guys as we bring a whole new culture.”