ORLANDO, Fla. — Nets guard Cam Thomas missed Tuesday night’s 108-81 loss to the Magic with a sprained right ankle.
He had an MRI exam on the ankle here Tuesday morning, with the results unknown by tipoff.
Thomas had suffered the injury coming down on teammate Day’Ron Sharpe’s foot with 7:23 left in Monday’s 111-86 win in Memphis.
He had undergone an X-ray that night at FedEx Forum, which was negative.
But Thomas having X-rays is largely expected, since all arenas have such equipment.
The young guard undergoing an MRI exam the next day was somewhat more noteworthy.
This isn’t Thomas’ first ankle sprain this season.
He’d sprained his other ankle in a Nov. 9 victory over the Clippers and missed the next nine games before eventually returning Nov. 30.
But he’s confident this one will be less serious with a much shorter recovery time.
“That’s the way it feels, less severe. I should be fine,” Thomas said. “Yeah, I mean I’m able to walk on it, so it’s not bad. We’ll take it day by day. But it’s not as bad as last time, so I’m not really concerned.”
Ben Simmons was out Tuesday, not yet cleared for back-to-backs by the performance team due to managing his recovery from back surgery.
The point guard said he’s inching toward being cleared.
“Yeah, I think I’m getting closer. So hopefully [soon],” he said.
With Simmons and Thomas both out, Cam Johnson made his return to the starting lineup.
The Nets went with him, Dorian Finney-Smith, Nic Claxton, Mikal Bridges and Dennis Schroder.
The Nets didn’t have to face star Paolo Banchero (illness) or big man Jonathan Isaac (illness).
But they blew a golden opportunity to get the Magic while they were shorthanded.
“All of them are missed opportunities when you lose,” interim coach Kevin Ollie said. “These are NBA basketball players. They’re pros.
“They’ve got a great team over there without Paolo, and you know we have a great team without Ben and some of the guys, we’re missing [Thomas], so we just expect our guys to step up, and unfortunately we didn’t step up enough tonight to get a win.”
Mikal Bridges had just four points on 2 of 14 shooting, including 0-of-7 from 3-point range.
His season low had been six, and that came in the infamous Milwaukee loss when he logged just 12 minutes and expressed his displeasure with Brooklyn either sitting or pulling their rotation players in punting the game.