Nets' Simmons out against Thunder due to back soreness

NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Simmons will miss the Brooklyn Nets’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night due to back soreness, the team announced on Twitter.

The Nets announced 22 minutes before tipoff that Simmons was out. The team had published a tweet about 50 minutes before the start of the game that said Simmons was “questionable.”

Edmond Sumner was scheduled to start in Simmons’ place.

Simmons had missed 10 games this season. 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 is coming off a 13-assist, nine-rebound and two-steal performance in the Nets’ 109-98 loss to Eastern Conference-leading Boston on Wednesday night. However, he was held scoreless on 0-for-3 shooting from the field in 26 minutes.

This season, Simmons is averaging 7.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 6.2 assists in 27.2 minutes per game. His season high is 22 points against Memphis on Nov. 20.

The timing of the injury comes as the Nets are dealing with the absence of Kevin Durant for the second straight game. Durant suffered an isolated sprain of the right ACL in the third quarter of the Nets’ 102-101 win over the Heat in Miami on Jan. 8. The next day, the team released a statement saying Durant would be “reevaluated in two weeks.”

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