SOON ENOUGH

Steve Nash looked around as if searching for a piece of wood to knock or a salt shaker to throw over his shoulder as he reacted to a question that phrased James Harden’s return to the Nets as inevitable.

Really, who can blame him? With all the injuries and other obstacles forcing the 35 different starting-lineup combinations used this year, Nash isn’t about to count his horses as another game comes off the schedule.

“He is putting in his consecutive high-intensity work modes, he has responded and so it’s all positive,” Nash said after watching Harden scrimmage during a rare practice Monday in Chicago. “We can’t commit to anything right now because we’re not committed to anything ... but definitely possible that he plays one or more of these next four games.”

Make that three games. The final week of the regular season offers the Nets two sets of back-to-back games: Harden will not play Tuesday against the Bulls, leaving home games Wednesday (Spurs), Saturday (Bulls) and Sunday (Cavaliers). Depending on how

Nash juggles lineups in the final three games, Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving could share the floor for just the eighth game all season. The Big 3 plus Blake Griffin could make its debut.

“We still don’t know for sure, but I think we’re in the position we thought we’d be in where James would be ready either at the end of the regular season or to start the playoffs,” Nash said. “But nothing is set in stone. We know what this season has been like.”

So much focus has been put on the Nets’ lack of opportunity to build on-court chemistry and find roles. But maybe that is an advantage in making them a difficult team for a playoff opponent to scout.

“I don’t know if we would be a mystery team: I think a lot of people would be focusing on what we have,” forward Jeff Green said. “It would be hard for them to scout [us] because they don’t know how we would play because we haven’t had a full roster pretty much all season.

“But I’m pretty sure they’re going to be long nights of trying to figure out ways to stop those guys. We’ve got a lot of weapons, and it’s going to be tough to really hone down on certain things that they want to take away. But that’s the greatness of our team and what we bring.”

The best example of the bad timing that epitomized this season is Durant returned from a 23-game absence with a left hamstring strain one game after Harden went out with a right hamstring strain that has caused him to miss 18 straight games. About a month ago, it felt the stars just weren’t going to align.

“We’ll be grateful if we can have a full complement of players available and start building and be prepared for the playoffs,” Nash said. “Completely 100 percent, just the nature of this league, there was obviously in the back of your mind a thought of what if this doesn’t come together? And the fear of that event. But I think right now we feel pretty positive and optimistic that we’re close and we’re in a good place.”

The final decision on Harden’s return will be both subjective and objective: A combination of how he responds the day after pushing his limits and how many days in a row he looks like he is headed in the right direction on the court, plus information gathered from scans and the medical staff.

Harden said last week that he planned “to play a couple games before the postseason.” The most logical way to accomplish that without taking an unnecessary risk would be to play Wednesday and in either end of the weekend back-toback. No jinx.

“When you are getting easy baskets from his passing, it definitely makes things easier,” Green said. “He’s very vocal out there on the floor on the defensive end as far as putting guys in the right spots and making sure they know the coverages. His voice is definitely something that we miss. His playmaking ability on the offensive end. We miss him, and hopefully we get him back soon.”