Simmons returns to lineup, plays 16 minutes in Nets' loss

DALLAS -- Ben Simmons returned to the Brooklyn Nets' lineup Monday night, playing 16 minutes in a 96-94 loss to the Dallas Mavericks after missing four games because of left knee soreness.

The Nets upgraded Simmons from questionable to available earlier in the day, and Simmons told reporters at the Nets' shootaround that he planned to play and expected to be limited to about 20 minutes.

Coming off the bench, Simmons finished with two points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal as the Nets fell to 4-7.

He said he was just happy to be back on the floor without having pain in his knee.

"That was the main thing for me," Simmons said. "Just have no pain. Get up and down the floor, sprint, run, jump, so I felt good."

But he admitted he wasn't pleased with the way he played.

"I'm my harshest critic, so I think terrible," Simmons said when asked for his assessment of his own game. "There's a place I want to get to. I got to keep working, I got to keep pushing myself and adapting, so I'll get there."

Simmons didn't travel with the Nets to Washington and Charlotte for the first two games of their three-game trip so he could continue getting treatment in hopes of reducing the swelling in his knee. Before the game, he said he believed that the knee issue, combined with rehabilitating from offseason back surgery, has impacted his play early in the season. He was averaging 6.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists before Monday's loss.

"Great to see him out on the floor," Nets interim coach Jacque Vaughn said after the game. "I put him out there with a group that could play fast, hoping to get some shooters around him.

"At that stretch, we didn't make a lot of shots. But, overall, seeing him back on the floor, he played with speed, he played with pace, which is good."

The No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft returned this season after missing all of last season, first for mental health reasons while with Philadelphia and then because of a herniated disk in his back after getting traded to Brooklyn. He last played in a loss to Indiana on Oct. 29. The Nets went 3-1 in his absence.

ESPN's Nick Friedell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.