The Brooklyn Nets fell victim to the injury bug during all four seasons of the Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving era. A quarter of the way into 2023-24, it has been more of the same.

After Nic Claxton, Cam Johnson and Cam Thomas all missed multiple weeks early in the year, Ben Simmons has been sidelined for the last six weeks due to a nerve impingement in his surgically repaired back. The team was also without bench contributors Lonnie Walker IV (hamstring strain) and Dennis Smith Jr. (upper back sprain) on its recent West Coast trip, finishing 1-4 and dropping to 13-13 on the season.

Following a 125-108 loss to the struggling Utah Jazz Monday, head coach Jacque Vaughn said the slew of injuries have taken a toll on Brooklyn.

“Hopefully we get a chance to go home and get some healthy bodies. That would be helpful for us,” Vaughn said. “We've been wearing some guys pretty thin this early in the year, unfortunately… We played some high-level teams on this trip, and I think the toll added up for us tonight.”

“At the end of the day, this trip took a toll on us physically and mentally… We gotta go home and regroup.”

According to a table generated by SravanNBA and Krishna Narsu of BBall Index, the Nets have been impacted by injuries the sixth-most of all NBA teams this season.

Brooklyn announced on Dec. 2 that Simmons had received an epidural injection, was “continuing to improve,” and would have his status updated in two weeks. When asked for an update on Dec. 16, head coach Jacque Vaughn said he wouldn't have any answers on Simmons until the team returned home from the road and saw him in person, per the New York Post's Brian Lewis.

As for Walker and Smith Jr., Vaughn wasn't optimistic that the bench duo would return to the lineup for Wednesday's matchup with the New York Knicks.

“They both have been home by themselves. They haven't played any one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three with anybody,” the coach said.

After signing for the minimum this offseason, both players had emerged as productive rotation pieces before being sidelined.

Walker established himself as one of the NBA's top bench scorers, averaging a career-high 14.6 points per game on 48.9 percent shooting from the field and 43.3 percent from three. The 24-year-old leads the league in scoring among players averaging fewer than 24 minutes per night.

Smith Jr.'s tenacious point-of-attack defense provided a significant boost for a Nets team performing well under expectations on that end. After returning from a six-game absence due to a lower back sprain, the 25-year-old averaged 11.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 2.0 steals on 53 percent shooting during wins over the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 2 and 6.

Without Walker and Smith Jr., Brooklyn ranked 23rd on offense and 26th on defense during the West Coast trip.

The Nets will have an opportunity to get healthy and regroup when they return home for matchups with the Knicks and Denver Nuggets before back-to-back meetings with the Detroit Pistons.