Kilpatrick returns with scoring touch

Sean Kilpatrick made his return to the court after missing seven games with an injured hamstring, the first games he had missed due to injury as a Net.

“I felt great,” Kilpatrick said. “I can’t complain how everything was run. It would’ve been better with a win, but that’s how everything rolled.”

Kilpatrick finished with nine points in 11 ¹/2 minutes off the bench Tuesday in a 106-101 loss to Philadelphia.

“It’s hard coming from an injury, you just have to roll with the flow,’’ Kilpatrick said when asked if those were the minutes he’d expected to get.

The shooting guard said if the training staff puts minute limits on players, they don’t share those decisions.

“They never do that. You never know,” he said. “You just go out and play.”

Kilpatrick checked in to start the second quarter and had seven quick points, but had his playing time limited the rest of the way. It was notable on a night when the Nets bench — normally a strength — struggled mightily, and Kilpatrick was the only reserve to post a positive plus-minus.

“Coach is just going with the flow,’’ Kilpatrick said. “At the end of the day I’m just grateful I got the minutes I played and I was able to come out and play the way I did.”

Brook Lopez had a game-high 26 points, nine rebounds and six assists. He’s had six or more assists four times this season, twice against Philadelphia.

For the second time this season, Pistons coach/president Stan Van Gundy was noncommittal and vague about keeping shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a restricted free agent the Nets are believed to have their eyes on.

“We only don’t have [him] next year if we decide we don’t want him next year. There’s no team that can decide they’re going to have KCP next year — it’s on us,’’ Van Gundy told the Detroit News.