Seth Curry and Ben Simmons were late scratches for Monday’s 116-109 win over Indiana, and both are up in the air for the tail end of this back-to-back Tuesday night against visiting Chicago. 

Simmons was a surprise addition to the injury list, questionable for Monday with a sore left knee. Then the struggling All-Star got downgraded to out during pregame warm-ups. 

“It’s sore. It’s swollen,” Simmons said before tipoff, adding he didn’t anticipate the injury being serious or long term but simply a matter of rust. “I think it’s just coming back. I don’t think there’s anything structurally wrong with it, it’s just coming back and playing.” 

Simmons added that he hoped to play against the Bulls, but had to wait to see if the swelling subsides. 

“He just has a sore knee. That’s all I know really. [Tuesday] we’ll have to monitor and see how he is,” coach Steve Nash said. “But [against Indiana] he’s out and we’ll see how the knee is [Tuesday] and if he’s able to go.” 

Curry had made his season debut in Saturday’s loss to the Pacers, and clearly looked a step off. He was scoreless in 17 ¹/₂ minutes, and a team-worst minus-13. 

Playing the Pacers again two days later, Curry was downgraded from questionable to out with an ongoing left ankle injury. 

“It’s coming along,” Curry said. “It’s coming along. We’re getting there.” 

Asked if the injury were going to be ongoing, Curry said he didn’t expect it to be. He, like Joe Harris, is coming off ankle surgery. While Harris has missed time from both his ankle and then a sore foot during his return to play, Nash wouldn’t draw comparisons between his two injured shooters. 

“We’ll see. I don’t want to make any sweeping statements about they’re in the same process. But we’ll see how Seth is [Tuesday] and go from there,” Nash said. “I think he feels like he’s got a little bit of a ways to go before he’s at his best.” 

With 36 points, Kevin Durant (25,754 career points) passed Vince Carter (25,728) for 19th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Up next is Kevin Garnett with 26,071. 

“To pass somebody I looked up to as a kid — my first NBA jersey was Vince Carter when he was in Toronto — so there’s a full-circle moment for me,” said Durant. 

Myles Turner — incessantly linked to Brooklyn in trade rumors — returned for the Pacers after a scheduled night off. T.J. McConnell (knee) played after sitting out Saturday and being listed as questionable. Both Daniel Theis (knee) and Aaron Nesmith (foot) were out. 

The Nets host Chicago and midrange king DeMar DeRozan Tuesday night on the tail end of this back-to-back. 

The Nets are dead last in the league in rebound percentage (.452), defensive rebound percentage (.637) and opponent 3-point percentage (.438).