The Nets acquired again key gamers Friday evening however misplaced their beginning middle for at the least every week.
Whereas Ben Simmons and Dorian Finney-Smith returned for the Nets of their 124-122 loss to the Knicks on the Backyard, Nic Claxton is now out.
The younger massive man is coping with a decrease again pressure.
On Thursday, the Nets’ 6-foot-11 defensive anchor was listed as questionable for the sport with decrease again tightness.
“He’s had the epidural and right now we have him reevaluated in like seven days, something like that,” coach Jordi Fernandez stated. “We’ll give you guys the update. Again, not super concerned. We wanna keep him healthy. His body is the number one thing for us, and now, it’s next man up.”
Fernandez wasn’t positive on which play Claxton suffered the damage however stated the again has been bothering him for a while. Claxton will miss at the least three video games, the contests in opposition to the Knicks on Friday and Sunday, together with Tuesday’s matchup with the Hornets. A best-case situation would have him return in every week in opposition to the 76ers in Philadelphia, though that’s clearly unsure.
After lacking your entire preseason as a consequence of a hamstring damage, Claxton was beginning to spherical into type. He was averaging 8.6 factors, 7.7 rebounds and a pair of.5 assists in 24.8 minutes per recreation.
With Claxton out, the Nets went with Simmons on the middle spot. Simmons missed Wednesday’s recreation in opposition to the Celtics with a good left calf whereas Finney-Smith was sidelined as a consequence of a sprained ankle.
On the time of the blockbuster commerce between the Knicks and Nets, new coach Fernandez was simply attending to know Mikal Bridges.
They’d a couple of exercises collectively and so they have been constructing a relationship.
He understood the transfer, which landed the rebuilding Nets 5 first-round draft picks, a second-rounder and a first-round choose swap.
“It’s part of our direction and how we want to do things and the plan that we have for building sustainable success,” Fernandez stated. “He’s an amazing player. I told him there’s nothing better in the NBA than being wanted, and he was wanted at that time.”
