Nets' Ben Simmons ruled out with back soreness
Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons watches a free throw by the Boston Celtics in the second half of an NBA basketball game at Barclays Center on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Less than an hour before tip-off of Sunday’s game against Oklahoma City at Barclays Center, the Nets announced that Ben Simmons was suffering from back pain and was listed as questionable. Thirty minutes later, the team announced that he was out.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said Simmons’ back began bothering him in warmups. The team plans to take him on their five-game road trip which begins Tuesday at San Antonio. There are no plans for him to get a MRI.
“Hopefully it’s just one game,” Vaughn said when asked how Simmons could be out.
Simmons, who missed all of last season with back and mental health issues, had an offseason back operation in which a fragment of a herniated disc was removed to relieve pressure on his spinal column. He missed his 10th game of the season on Sunday, but just his first one with back soreness.
He sat out five games with left knee soreness, four with an upper lateral calf strain, and one with knee-and-calf injury management. Simmons was on a minutes restriction though his first 20 games and did not play in back to backs.
With Kevin Durant expected to be out for at least a month with a right MCL sprain, the Nets are looking for Simmons — one of their best defenders — to also play a more prominent role on offense.
In the Nets' first game without Durant, a 109-98 loss to the Celtics on Thursday, Simmons turned in a strangely lopsided performance. He recorded 10 of his 13 assists in the second half, grabbed nine rebounds, but failed to score and took just three shots.
It is not known when Simmons’ back problem flared up. He went through Saturday’s practice without a problem, and Vaughn did not mention anything about his back in his pregame press conference.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
