Nets’ Ben Simmons to miss at least next three games with calf strain

The Nets, who have sought an elusive rhythm and have awaited to reach full strength all season, now will be without Ben Simmons for at least three games.

The Nets announced Wednesday that the star point guard suffered a left lateral upper calf strain that will keep him sidelined against the Wizards on Wednesday, the Raptors on Friday and Celtics on Sunday. He’ll then be reassessed.

Simmons suffered what had been previously termed left knee soreness during Monday’s win over the Magic, which he exited in the second quarter.

Simmons, who underwent offseason back surgery, has had issues with his left knee all season, already having missed five games because of it. He had surgery on the same knee in August 2020.

After Monday’s win, head coach Jacque Vaughn attributed the leg issues to Simmons’ increasing playing time after a season in which he never saw the court.

“More so than anything, the accumulation of games,” Vaughn said. “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.”

Additionally, the Nets announced forward Yuta Watanabe, who had missed five straight games with a strained right hamstring, will miss at least another week.

Watanabe underwent an MRI on Monday that was consistent with the previous findings. He is “still experiencing awareness with the hamstring,” the Nets said, and will be reassessed in seven days.