NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets are doing their best to rack up enough wins to get back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture before time has run out. Brooklyn has two important games on Thursday and Saturday that could determine whether that dream comes true, but have some unfortunate injuries at the moment.
Prior to Thursday’s matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, Nets interim head coach Kevin Ollie said that Ben Simmons (left leg soreness) and Cam Thomas (right ankle/midfoot sprain) are “day-to-day” with their respective injuries. Both players will be missing their second straight game on Thursday and those injuries are coming at the worst time for a Brooklyn team trying to make the playoffs.
“It’s a challenging adjustment because Cam and Ben, they do things on our team that really allows us to play with pace and break down defenses,” Ollie said. It’s hard to argue with this assessment given that Simmons is the point guard of this team and Thomas is arguably the best scorer on the squad along with being able to make plays for others as well.
The Hawks will be playing both games against the Nets without their best player in Trae Young who’s out with a finger injury. However, Ollie noted that Atlanta plays bigger without Young and has been great at creating points off of turnovers so Brooklyn has to overcome those injuries while taking care of the basketball as well.
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