Jeremy Lin believes he’s ready to come back now. The Nets continue to offer no update on his prognosis. And so goes what has been a lost first season for the team’s marquee free-agent acquisition, a pair of hamstring injuries costing Lin 26 of the Nets’ first 38 games.

In a Chinese-language interview, Lin said he finally hopes to play again in a week or two, and that if it were up to him, he’d be on the court already

“I love Jeremy’s competitiveness. That’s Jeremy being competitive, that’s him wanting to be out there to help his teammates,” coach Kenny Atkinson said before the Nets lost their eighth straight, 104-95, to the Pelicans at Barclays Center on Thursday night. “That’s the way I look at it. We’ll continue to evaluate [him]. He’s progressing nicely.

“He understands that our performance team and our doctors, that’s who I’m listening to.”

Though the Nets have declined to give any sort of tangible update on his progress, he spoke with CCTV NBA Prime Time in Chinese, and the quotes were taken from closed caption translations.

“It’s progressing gradually,” Lin said of the hamstring. “I think the recovery is faster than last time.”

Pelicans forward Donatas Motiejunas was in Brooklyn Thursday night, a place he nearly called home. A restricted free agent, he signed a four-year offer sheet with the Nets worth up to as much as $37 million. But his former team, the Rockets, matched the offer sheet, then Motiejunas refused to take a physical, and the sides ended up parting ways after being unable to come to an agreement on details of a new deal. He was unable, however, to re-sign with the Nets by league rules, and ended up inking a one-year minimum deal with the Pelicans.

“It ended up unfair both ways,” said Motiejunas, who scored just one point and missed all seven of his field-goal attempts.

The 26-year-old Motiejunas said he has spoken to representatives for the player’s association about getting rules changed for restricted free agents, so they aren’t in limbo like he was.

“They’re going to try to make sure a player is never in a situation like this,” he said.

Rookie guard Isaiah Whitehead suffered a sprained left knee in the third quarter and didn’t return. Atkinson said he was available to come back in, but went with Sean Kilpatrick in the fourth quarter instead.