As Ben Simmons sat out his 12th consecutive game Saturday night due to a lower back impingement, the Nets revealed that the injured former All-Star is still multiple weeks from returning to their lineup.
Simmons received an epidural injection earlier in the week as part of his rehab plan “and continues to improve,” the team said Saturday in a statement.
He has played in just 48 games with the Nets, and has missed 80 of the 128 the Nets have played since acquiring him Feb. 10, 2022.
“Simmons will continue with treatment and strengthening exercises while gradually increasing basketball activity,” the statement read. “His status will next be updated in approximately two weeks.”
The 27-year-old Simmons, who underwent microdiscectomy surgery in May 2022 to repair a herniated disk, has been sidelined since Nov. 6 with the current lower back issue.
Soon after Simmons left the lineup, a specialist told The Post that the 6-foot-10 Simmons would likely require two weeks of rehab and another two weeks before he could resume playing.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said before Saturday’s game against the Magic at Barclays Center that getting the epidural “was part of [Simmons’] normal course of conditioning and strengthening, and hopefully getting back to joining” the active roster.
“[He’s had] no setbacks. Right now he is still doing low-level stuff on the court — no rebounding, no sprinting up the court,” Vaughn said. “In [the next] two weeks, he’ll continue to strengthen, and we’ll have something hopefully for you then.”
Vaughn had said Thursday that the three-time All-Star has been participating in team meetings and film sessions “and all that stuff,” and the coach added Saturday would bring an update about “what he’s been doing on the court.”
Vaughn added that Simmons’ on-court work “hasn’t been incorporated with other players at all.”
Simmons, who was acquired from the 76ers as part of the James Harden trade at the 2022 trade deadline, missed the entire 2021-22 season with mental-health issues and back problems. He also sat out games last season with knee and calf injuries before the nerve impingement in his back ended his season in March.
Simmons had averaged 6.5 points, 10.8 rebounds and 6.7 assists in 31.8 minutes per game in six starts earlier this season.
Backup point guard Dennis Smith Jr. was available to play Saturday after sitting out the previous six games with a strained lower back. But reserve wing Lonnie Walker IV was sidelined with a left hamstring strain, as was forward Dorian Finney-Smith who was a game-time decision due to foot and knee soreness.
Smith, who signed a one-year contract worth $2.53 million as a free agent in July, has averaged 5.8 points, 3.2 assists and 17 minutes in 11 appearances off the bench this season.
“We’ve missed Dennis,” Vaughn said. “We missed his competitiveness. We miss his ability to drive our group, a nastiness about him that I love, a fierceness. The last time he played Orlando, he was really scrappy. He can guard multiple positions, and we’ll need him [Saturday night].”
The Magic entered riding a nine-game winning streak and with a 14-5 overall record.
They hadn’t lost since the Nets downed them by 20 points in Brooklyn on Nov. 14.
They are led by 2022 top-overall draft pick Paulo Banchero, and brothers Franz and Mo Wagner.
“Yeah, the last time they lost was versus us, so you see a team that is really connected,” Vaughn said. “I think their coach [Jamahl Mosley] has pushed them to a position of really enjoying and competing and playing for one another. You see that in how they cheer for each other, the joy that they play with and playing extremely hard.
“Obviously they’re playing with an extreme amount of confidence and a lot of guys are playing well.”
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