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#Nets expect to regain Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons for Wizards game

“Nets expect to regain Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons for Wizards game”

WASHINGTON — After missing a staggering eight rotation players in Saturday’s win at Indiana, the Nets are expecting to get back six of them for Monday’s game at Washington, with a chance for a seventh.

Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, Joe Harris, Seth Curry and T.J. Warren had all missed Saturday for injury management — the latest NBA euphemism for rest — and were removed from the Nets’ injury report on Sunday night. Kyrie Irving, who’d sat out with left adductor tightness, was also cleared to face the Wizards.

Starting center Nic Claxton is listed as questionable with right hamstring tightness after sitting out the 136-133 win. Wing Royce O’Neale will miss a second straight due to personal reasons.

“Everyone else, we expect them to be locked and loaded and ready to go in DC,” coach Jacque Vaughn had said, adding “Nic as well.”

Durant rejoined the Nets in Washington after having not even flown to Indiana. The 34-year-old’s workload has been a concern, having come into the weekend leading the league in minutes played at 994. O’Neale had been second at 971.

Kevin Durant #7, Kyrie Irving #11, and Ben Simmons #10 of the Brooklyn Nets react against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center on November 22, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Nets are expecting Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons back for Monday against the Wizards.
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

David Duke Jr., Kessler Edwards and Donovan Williams were all out, on assignment with G-League Long Island after fill-in duty Saturday.

Williams — a rookie on a two-way contract — made his NBA debut against the Pacers, making the Nets the last team to play a rookie this season. He was scoreless with one rebound, one foul and two turnovers in 5:16. Duke Jr. had seven points, three boards and three assists — albeit four turnovers — in 25:15.

Edwards may have had the biggest impact. He started and had six points, nine rebounds and a steal in 34:37. And with the Nets trailing by 14 in the third quarter, they went to a zone with the long-armed Edwards at the top of it.

The move caught Indiana off guard. Brooklyn went on a 16-5 run to get back in it, switching back-and-forth from man to zone the rest of the way to pull out the come-from-behind victory.

“Yeah, so we really saved that,” said Vaughn, “We didn’t want to give it to him before halftime so they could adjust to it at halftime. So we kept it in our back pocket and little bit of a surprise attack and gave us some legs a little bit, slowed them down, kept us in front of the basketball.

“And we were actually able to rebound out of it, which a lot of times that’s the challenge of zone. Then we mixed it up on them. When they went to the zone package, we were able to do go zone to man back to zone back to man and create a little bit of agitation for them. We want it to be the aggressors and the zone allowed us to do that.”


Markieff Morris is coming off his first double-double (15 points and 11 rebounds), but he had other good news Saturday. His contract guaranteed by another $1 million.

He was guaranteed for $500,000 on opening night. Morris’ $2.9 million veteran minimum deal becomes fully guaranteed on Jan. 10.

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