Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and the Brooklyn Nets suffered a heartbreaking defeat to the Boston Celtics on Sunday. As Kevin Durant admitted after the game, no matter how many tough L's he's taken in his career, losing that way still stings.

But it's not impossible we could see them add an All-Star caliber player mid-series. Shams Charania of The Athletic gave an update on Ben Simmons.

According to Shams, appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show,” where he's been a regular guest providing key Simmons intel over the last couple of months, Simmons is progressing in his rehab:

“Right now the goal is to ramp him up. Right now what he's going through is this week… by the end of the week the goal is for him to get in some five-on-five. And actually get bumped up. Get some contact. He hasn't done that yet. He hasn't done that since June of 2021….  so the goal is, let him get some contact before the end of the week. Game 3 I believe is Friday, and then Game 4 is Monday…. I'm told that is the point where we should all start looking to see if Ben Simmons will play or not. The goal is for him to be back between games 4 and 6…. I think that they are very confident that he'll be able to make a return as soon as next Monday. I don't expect him to play full games… .whether it's 15-20 minutes to start.”

It's pretty funny that the host McAfee was clowning Simmons (in the clip above) a bit for not playing while possibly healthy because when Shams told him the reason Simmons wasn't in was that he suffered a herniated disc in his back (a very serious ailment) McAfee was stunned. Shams first reported it on Mar. 21 and has been talking about it for weeks now. He even appeared on McAfee's show days later on Mar. 24 to talk about that report.

McAfee admitted he hadn't heard that. Hey Pat, we at ClutchPoints highly recommend you watch your own show for the latest Shams bombs as we do! Great intel there!

For the Nets, they allowed Jayson Tatum to score 31 points in Game 1 on 9 of 18 from the floor. If there's one thing a healthy Simmons could do its limit that type of efficiency and allow the Nets to get more transition looks. Jaylen Brown had 23 points himself, and commanded double-teams when he'd get into the paint. It was a key breakdown on the game's final play that came because of a set initiated by Brown. If the Nets are in a 2-1 series by the time Game 4 arrives, it makes sense to see what they have here with the Aussie playmaker.

Time is running out on Brooklyn. But if they can steal a win in the next contest, then things will feel a lot more relaxed and they won't have to push Simmons back too early. The Nets have a very conservative ramp-up process where Ben would need to progress through three high intensity five on five practices without setback before he could play. Whether that happens within one week, we'll have to wait and see without holding our collective breath.