East Notes: Nets, Ben Simmons, Bucks, Wizards

Nets

Guard/forward Ben Simmons will miss Wednesday’s game with knee soreness, coach Jacque Vaughn said after Monday’s win over the Magic.

“So he had some left knee soreness, that same knee. Asked to be pulled out of the game,” Vaughn told reporters, via Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “We’ll check him day by day, see how he responds with a little treatment, see what it looks like.”

Simmons missed all of last season and had back surgery during the summer. He has appeared in 17 games so far, but some injury issues continue to linger.

“More so than anything, the accumulation of games,” Vaughn said in explaining the injury issues. “He hasn’t had this amount of accumulation of games over a period of a long time.

“[We] talked to the performance team about that. We were warned about that just as these games start to add up. His cumulative load as that begins to add up, it’s really stretching him sometimes the amount of games we’ve just had with the minutes that he’s played pretty high.”

Bucks

• Forward Khris Middleton took part in a light practice, and has been working out with the G League’s Herd, but remains out for Wednesday’s game vs. the Knicks, per Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
• Guard MarJon Beauchamp is also out after being placed in health and safety protocols, Owczarski relayed. Power forward Serge Ibaka is also out.

Wizards

Forward/center Kristaps Porzingis scored a career-high 41 points vs. the Timberwolves on Monday, and it wasn’t just fun for Porzingis. His teammates seemed to enjoy it, too.

“It’s always fun when you can get somebody a career night,” forward Kyle Kuzma said. “It’s very, very hard to play in this league. It’s very hard to do anything in this league, and any time players can have career highs it means a lot to them, and as a player you understand how much it means.”

• Porzingis previous career high came five years ago, when he scored 40 as a member of the Knicks on Nov. 5, 2017.
• An MRI revealed forward Rui Hachimura has a right bone bruise, ruling him out for Wednesday. Hachimura has missed the previous four games already,. He is considered day-to-day.