Ben Simmons Ruled Out vs. Wizards
The Brooklyn Nets will be without Ben Simmons (left knee soreness) against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night at Barclays Center.
At the 9:03 mark of the second quarter in the Nets' win over the Orlando Magic on Monday night, Simmons signaled to come out of the game and went straight to the locker room. He remained in the locker room for the remainder of the first half and the team officially ruled him out for the rest of the game at halftime.
"He had some left knee soreness, that same knee. He asked to be pulled out of the game. We'll check him day-by-day," Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn said postgame. "See how he responds with a little treatment and see how it looks tomorrow."
The Nets head coach stated that he doesn't expect Simmons to undergo additional imaging on his left knee to go with the treatment he'll receive. He added the swingman's knee soreness is day-to-day.
Vaughn credited the accumulation of minutes and games across the recent stretch as the main factor for Simmons' knee soreness returning. The Nets swingman has played 30+ minutes in six of the seven games (excluding Monday's win against the Magic) after his initial injury battle - resulting in Simmons missing a total of five games.
"I think more than anything, the accumulation of games," said Vaughn postgame. "He hasn't had this amount of accumulation of games over a period in a long time. I talked to the performance team about that. We were warned about it a little bit as these games add up. His cumulative load begins to add up. It's really stretching him sometimes. The amount of games we had with the minutes that he's played was pretty high going into tonight's game."
Brooklyn will also be without Yuta Watanabe (right hamstring strain), T.J. Warren (left foot - injury recovery), and Alondes Williams (right adductor strain). Nets two-way guard David Duke Jr. is listed as questionable with a non-COVID illness.
