After missing nearly three months, even the Nets had no idea what they’d get from Ben Simmons.
But the early returns on his return?
Pretty damn good.
With their only All-Star finally back on the floor, the Nets looked like an entirely different team — a better one. He gave them pace, and a transition game. And a 147-114 rout of Utah before a crowd of 16,054 at Barclays Center on Monday night.
After missing 38 straight games with a nerve impingement in his back, Simmons played for the first time since Nov. 6.
But there was no rust, just playmaking and energy that the Nets have so sorely been lacking, and helped them build a 35-point cushion.
“Yeah, that’ll be good. Having his energy, fresh legs out there,” said Nic Claxton before the game. “We’re pretty desperate right now. We need wins. We don’t have time to be on cruise control right now. We’ve been taking a lot of losses, so we need to definitely come out locked in and … be ready to go.”
Mikal Bridges had a team-high 33 points on 6-for-14 from deep, and Claxton added 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. But Simmons was the man of the hour, with infectious ball movement.
Simmons flirted with a triple-double, notching 10 points, game-high 11 assists and eight boards.
Despite being on a cautious minutes restriction from the performance team, he was a stellar plus-27 in just 18:14.
His passing was contagious, as the Nets handed out a season-best 41 assists and put eight scorers in double figures. It marked just the third time the Nets had handed out 40 assists since 2000.
Coming off the bench in the first quarter and immediately sparking a 20-7 run in his 4:34 was his most important contribution. But his steal off Lauri Markkanen — tapping the ball up over the Jazz All-Star and to himself for a breakaway dunk and 92-77 lead with 3:25 left in the third — was by far his most impressive.
The Nets poured it on, with back-to-back Simmons layups padding the cushion to 26 and 126-100 and 128-102 with 5:36 left.
He departed with 3:27 and Brooklyn up by 29.
The high-priced and oft-injured Simmons entering Monday having been limited to just six games this season, and 48 total since Brooklyn acquired him at the 2021-22 trade deadline.
With Simmons earning $37.9 million this season and $40.3 million next season, getting victories wasn’t the only thing the Nets are desperate for. They desperately need to get Simmons right, and keep him that way.
Asked if Simmons would need to string together a run of good health before the team could count on him, Vaughn replied, “For me, he’s told me he’s ready to go. Got the sign-off from the performance team … so he’s another basketball player for us. He’s going to try to help us win. I’m going to keep it as simple as that.”
Simmons helped them Monday. A Nets team that had been 5-17 after a 13-10 start needed a spark and got it.
The Nets went 21-for-45 from deep, with Simmons pushing the pace and creating open looks from 3-point range.
And following a disastrous attempt to go to drop coverage, the Nets have played better defensively the past month after returning to a switching scheme. Simmons should only help that.
“That’s a huge advantage. He can really guard, and he can also rebound on top of that,” Cam Johnson said. “Everything that we want to do as a team, he fits that mold.
“I’m excited. He’s a big piece of what we want to do. I only got to play the first game of the season with him, and even then I was fresh back [from my own hamstring injury], so it wasn’t really necessarily full-go. So I’m really excited to get back on board and re-establish that chemistry and the way we want to play.”
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