Nets vs. Spurs Tuesday NBA injury report, odds: Ben Simmons back as Brooklyn remains winless without Kevin Durant

The Brooklyn Nets collapsed last season when Kevin Durant suffered a knee injury, but that wasn't expected to happen again this year when Durant went down with an MCL sprain Jan. 8 in Miami. The 2022-23 Nets have a full-time Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons after Irving only played in home games for part of last season and Simmons didn't play at all. But Brooklyn is 0-2 both straight up and against the spread since Durant's injury as it visits San Antonio Tuesday as a 5.5-point favorite at Caesars Sportsbook.

There's certainly no shame in Brooklyn losing its first-post Durant game last Thursday vs. Boston, 109-98. However, the Nets faced a tired Oklahoma City Thunder team playing the finale of a five-game trip in Brooklyn on Sunday and lost 112-102 as 5-point favorites.

You don't need a degree in mathematics to realize the Nets are averaging only 100 points in the past two games. Just for a point of comparison, Miami is last in the NBA in scoring overall at 108.9 points per game. Durant is averaging 29.7 PPG, and the Nets were putting up 114 PPG and a 26-13 record with him in the lineup (they also won a December game at Indiana with both Durant and Irving on the bench).

There's only so much Irving can do by himself, and teams are keying in on him defensively. Irving has totaled 39 points on 16-for-44 shooting during the losing streak. He's just 4-for-18 from downtown in that stretch. Irving is set at over/under 30.5 points tonight.

Simmons was a late scratch for Sunday's loss, one game after a season-high 13 assists vs. Boston, but isn't on the injury report for Tuesday. Simmons has a team-leading and career-best 2.91 assist-to-turnover ratio this season. The Nets had 24 assists and 16 turnovers without him vs. OKC.

Brooklyn has won six in a row against the Spurs and two straight in San Antonio after posting a 4-43 record in its first 47 trips there. Since the start of December, Brooklyn is a league-best 9-1 on the road. But, again, Durant played in those games.

Rebuilding San Antonio has lost five straight games and eight of nine. The Spurs are a truly horrific defensive team, allowing a league-worst 121.7 PPG. This is a get-right game for the Nets, to say the least. They beat visiting San Antonio 139-103 on Jan. 2. Irving shot 11-for-14, Durant was 10-for-14, and neither played in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn shot 62% from the field and never trailed.

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