Nets hoping Ben Simmons’ likely return can help fix their most glaring issues

The Nets, in their own way, gave Ben Simmons something positive to likely return to on Monday against the Jazz.

While they did break their three-game losing streak in a 106-104 victory over the Rockets on Saturday in which the Nets once held a 28-point lead, the game wasn’t without the team’s usual fourth-quarter mishaps and letdowns.

But those miscues, the Nets believe, can be aided by Simmons’ return after his 2 ½-month absence to address a nerve impingement in his lower back.

“It’s not really easy for nobody to just come in like that and it be like a seamless transition, but obviously he’ll have good spurts,” said Cam Thomas after Saturday’s win. “I mean, obviously he’ll have bad spurts, he hasn’t played in a while. It’s tough. It’s tough for anybody.

“It was tough for me first coming back playing with the guys, trying to figure out where I fit in and just the rhythm of the game again. Just rhythm of the game, flow, the conditioning aspect of it. We can do as much conditioning as we want, the game is a different speed, it’s a different transition, different reads.

“The game moves fast, so we gotta give him some games, but I’m sure if he’s coming back he’ll be ready to go. … But we just gotta give him time. … It’s tough for anybody to come back and have a good transition like that, but I have my faith in him and he’ll be another great addition for us.”