Ben Simmons has made an emphatic return from his long-term back injury, coming up just short of a triple-double as the Brooklyn Nets recorded their first consecutive wins of the new year.
Simmons had missed 12 weeks and 38 games with a nerve impingement, the latest in a frustrating string of injuries that have scuppered his first two years in Brooklyn.
But in his first game back on Monday night (Tuesday AEDT), the Australian guard was agitator-in-chief as the Nets rode early dominance to a 147-114 shellacking of the visiting Utah Jazz.
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Simmons took a heavy fall going up for a block in the final four minutes of the game and was substituted out, apparently as a precaution.
Had he stayed on court, Simmons would almost certainly have recorded his second triple-double as a Net, finishing with 10 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds from only 18 minutes.
Brooklyn, who had won only two of their last nine before Tuesday, finished with their most-convincing win and biggest score of the season, as well as their first back-to-back victories since December 27.
Mikal Bridges (33 points) and Cam Thomas (25 points, seven rebounds) led the scorers for Brooklyn.
The Nets were up by two points when Simmons checked in for only his seventh appearance of the season, and first since early November.
By the end of his first stint, Simmons had inspired a 14-0 run that had Brooklyn ahead by 16.
The Nets led by at least nine points for the remainder of the game and for good measure Simmons had set a franchise record by quarter time.
Since records have been kept, no Nets player had recorded six assists from the bench in a first quarter.
It took only six seconds for Simmons to notch his first.
Showing no signs of his back injury as he belted up the court in transition, the top pick of the 2016 draft found an open Royce O’Neale, who shot from deep.
Coach Jacque Vaughn would’ve delighted in seeing Simmons competing at full tilt, as he did tapping back an offensive rebound for a flying Cam Thomas only seconds later.
Simmons checked out only one assist shy of the most recorded by a Nets player in a quarter this season: in only five first-quarter minutes.
Simmons forced a Jazz timeout late in the third quarter when he picked Lauri Markkanen’s pocket and streaked up the court to dunk.
In the fourth, Simmons tipped in a lob from Bridges that pushed him closer to a triple-double and lit up the Brooklyn crowd.
Simmons had only joined Brooklyn for shoot-around on game day, having trained with the side’s G-League affiliate Long Island at the weekend.
“He hasn’t practised with the dudes he’s going to play with tonight,” Vaughn said before play began.
Vaughn indicated the Nets would assess the injury-prone Simmons post-game to determine his future workload.