'Incredible': Ben explodes in stunning five-min burst as Aussie sends ...

Ben Simmons is back ... in a big way!

In Simmons’ first game in nearly three months due to injury, he flirted with a triple-double in limited court time to help the Brooklyn Nets claim a huge 147-114 blowout win at home over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday (all times AEDT).

The Aussie racked up 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting, eight rebounds, 11 assists, a steal and a block with no turnovers in 18 minutes as +27 plus/minus.

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“Extremely impressive,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said of Simmons post-match.

“The ecosystem we live in is built around each other feeding off each other. We empower each other, you saw how other people played so well tonight because of the impact of Ben Simmons. It’s that simple.

“The looks we got, the amount of threes, the fast-break points, the uncontested looks and the pace we played with ... we did it on both ends of the floor and Ben deserves an extreme amount of credit the way he played tonight.

“Once he said he was ready to go, I had no qualms he was going to be able to push the pace for us and get back to the high energy, high-octane pace he’s played with with this group.

“You see how he just impacts other people, he makes other dudes better. He likes doing that and when you get a guy who wants to do that on a nightly basis, it’s infectious.

“The ball movement tonight, he was the reason for it ... you can’t ask for anything more, especially with the time he’s missed.”

It marked a season-high scoring performance for the Nets and season-high assists (41) as they improved to 19-27 on the season, while Mikal Bridges (33 points) and Cam Thomas (24 points) also chipped in big performances.

But Simmons’ emphatic return was the bigger story, with the Aussie impacting the game from the moment he stepped onto the floor and changing the entire feel for Brooklyn.

Checking into the game with six minutes left in the first quarter — and a smile on his face— Simmons was immediately active with several hustle plays to help shift the dynamic of the game.

Simmons grabbed two rebounds and racked up six assists in just five minutes — described as “five glorious minutes” by YES Network commentator Ryan Ruocco — to help spark a Nets 14-0 run as they surged ahead of Utah on the scoreboard.

A no-look pass to Royce O’Neal under the basket was a particular highlight in an early sign Simmons was on.

“This what they want to see (of Simmons) ... there’s just so many ways he can impact a game, you saw that in transition. You had to flatten the defence,” NBA legend Richard Jefferson told the YES Network.

“That’s what Ben Simmons brings to the game.”

Just as important to anything, Simmons and his teammates were clearly having fun out there.

The exciting ball movement helped the Nets drain eight threes in the opening quarter, with the home side racing out to a 43-25 lead at the first change as the fans at Barclays Centre went nuts.

And Simmons, on a minutes restriction and only playing in short spurts, had a massive role to play in that run with some big moments as a +12 in the first term.

Simmons’ epic first quarter saw him become the first Nets player to record six-plus assists in an opening term since 1996-97.

“I played with Jason Kidd for what felt like a decade, that is very, very hard to do — six assists in four minutes. You haven’t played basketball in months, and that’s your ability, that’s the high-level ability he brings to the game,” Jefferson added.

“It’s really been the injuries that have kept them on the court ... if he’s healthy, he’s going to be impactful.”

Jefferson also pointed out how much Simmons’ strengths perfectly compliment what the Nets need after falling into a mid-season slump.

“What’s interesting about Simmons is it’s so clear that the talents he possesses are exactly what this team needs and this roster fits him perfectly,” he noted.

“But of course, the flipside of that is you hesitate to ever get too excited because his availability has been such a massive issue since coming in.

“Back injuries, hip injuries, whatever a player is dealing with or if it’s a knee injury — those can be frustrating because you’re not sure of the timetable. But I will say this, on the offensive end you know his impact. His size on the defensive end.

“He is a person that can help this team... what he can do and what impact he can have is special. There is a reason he was the number one pick. There is a reason why he was an All-Star. There is a reason why he was a Defensive Player of the Year candidate. He possesses all of those talents.”

By half-time, Simmons had two points, six rebounds and seven assists in nine minutes as a +18.

“Just playing the game I know how to play thee way I play it and pushing the pace for my guys and sharing the ball,” Simmons told the YES Network at the main break.

“It’s a simple game — you’re going to miss some shots, make some shots, turn the ball over, get some assists — it’s simple to me. Just go out there and push the ball.”

The big moments kept coming in the second half.

Late in the third term, Simmons picked off the ball from Lauri Markkanen and ran the floor and threw down a huge fast-break slam, forcing a Jazz timeout.

“Ben Simmons showing you a bit of everything tonight,” Ruocco said.

Jefferson added: “This is what the Nets fans have been waiting for — a healthy Ben Simmons. Doing it on the defensive end and leading to offence.”

Simmons in the fourth term showed off his athleticism, taking flight to finish an alley-oop pass from Mikal Bridges.

The Aussie was doing it on both ends of the floor, minutes later blocking a Talen Horton-Tucker drive that saw Simmons land awkwardly on the floor and appear to be in some discomfort while holding his knee.

The former No. 1 pick eventually checked out of the game with 3:30 left to a loud applause from Brooklyn fans in marveling at his “tremendous return,” as put by Ruocco.

“You could feel his impact on the basketball game the second he came in, literally the first possession,” he said.

Nets centre Nic Claxton spoke pre-game about the excitement of welcoming the Aussie back into the fold.

“He definitely helps us. It’s good to see him back with the group,” starting centre Nic Claxton said of Simmons. “Of course he brings this extremely high basketball IQ, being able to defend multiple positions on the defensive side of the ball, rebounding. So we are definitely happy to have him back.

“He’s been diligent, he’s been locked in on his rehab. Of course, nobody wants to go through what he’s going through with his back injury and everything but, you know, he’s happy to be back. I’m just happy to see how everything will look with him back with the group.”

The high-priced and oft-injured Simmons has been limited to just six games this season due to a nerve impingement in his left lower back.

He’s logged just 39 appearances since Brooklyn acquired him at the 2021-22 trade deadline at the cost of former MVP James Harden.

But after missing the last 38 straight games, Simmons practised with G League Long Island over the weekend and was upgraded from probable to available on the Nets’ latest injury report, meaning he should suit up for the first time since Nov. 7.

“I’m excited. He’s a big piece of what we want to do,” Cam Johnson said of Simmons. “I only got to play the first game of the season with him, and even then I was kind of fresh back (from my own hamstring injury), so it wasn’t really necessarily full-go. So I’m really excited to get back on board and re-establish that chemistry and the way we want to play.”

Johnson is right in that the Nets – struggling at 18-27 ahead of Tuesday’s game and sitting outside even Eastern Conference play-in – have seen far too little of a healthy rotation.

Their presumptive top seven of he, Simmons, Claxton, Mikal Bridges, Cam Thomas, Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith have been available just once all season, opening night. They won’t be together again against Utah, with Finney-Smith injured.

Brooklyn’s trio of Simmons, Bridges and Claxton have logged just 4:18 with Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith, and 4:32 with Dinwiddie and Johnson. That trio has played just a minute each with Thomas and Finney-Smith and Thomas and Johnson.

In essence, they have no idea what these line-ups are going to actually look like.

They can simply bank on being better with Simmons than without him, a switchable 6-foot-10 defender who can guard multiple positions and was averaging 10.8 rebounds when he went down.

“That’s a huge advantage,” Johnson said. “He can really guard, and he can also rebound on top of that. So, like I said, everything that we want to do as a team, he fits that mold.”

Claxton is regarded as one of it not the best switching centres in the NBA.

Following a disastrous attempt to go to drop coverage, Brooklyn has played much better defensively the past month after returning to a switching scheme. Even if his minutes are limited, Simmons should only help that.

“I think it just adds more versatility to the group in general, just having another guy who’s used to switching, somebody that I’m used to playing with and I feel like we did some really good things on defensive side of the ball last year, so just being able to continue to add to that,” said Claxton.

Simmons is earning $37.9 million this season and $40.3 million next season.

-Parts of this story were originally published in The New York Post and reproduced with permission.