Nets rule out Mikel Brown Jr. vs. Pacers during front end of back-to-back

The Brooklyn Nets will be without rookie point guard Mikel Brown Jr. during Sunday's road matchup with the Indiana Pacers . They ruled out the No. 6 pick for the front end of a back-to-back due to back injury management. Brown is expected to play on Monday against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Brown has come off the bench for the Nets to start this season while on a minutes restriction. He won't play in back-to-backs until that restriction is lifted, which won't happen anytime soon, according to head coach Jordi Fernandez.

"Right now, we're building him up, and if you look at the schedule, we have two days in between [games]. So when you play this amount of minutes, you get assessed. Assessed is how you feel, everything," head coach Jordi Fernandez said after Brown played a season-high 28 minutes during Tuesday's loss to the Boston Celtics. "Then you have 48 hours, and then you play another game. And when he does it for the weeks that we have planned, which I'm not going to share with you guys, and we feel like he's strong enough and he's gone through it and that his body can assimilate all the load, [then he'll be off the minutes limit]. This was one game. He played more because we're confident that with the rest he has [upcoming]. So that's where we are. And right now it's the fourth game. [Mikel won't be off the limit] anytime soon because I want to load him with minutes and have him feeling good."

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Brown scored 17 points during the fourth quarter and overtime during his season-high 28 minutes in Boston on Tuesday. He struggled to replicate that production while playing 23 minutes during Friday's 110-94 home loss to the Detroit Pistons.

Nets rule Mikel Brown Jr. out for Pacers matchup on front end of back-to-back

Brown posted 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 0-of-4 from three with four assists and two turnovers against Detroit. The rookie has averaged 10.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.8 turnovers while shooting 12-of-44 (27.3 percent) from the field and 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from three in 22.5 minutes per game across his four appearances this season.

With Brown sidelined in Indiana, sophomore point guard Nolan Traore will shoulder the bulk of the Nets' ball-handling responsibilities. The French floor general moved into Brooklyn's starting lineup in place of veteran Keon Ellis during the last two games. Traore has averaged 9.4 points, 1.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 turnovers on .432/.300/.706 shooting splits in 19.0 minutes per game across five appearances this season.

Despite Brown and Egor Demin (right leg bone bruise) missing Sunday's matchup, the Nets ruled out sophomore point guard Ben Saraf due to a G League assignment. Saraf has been out of Brooklyn's rotation to start this season.

That could open a spot for veteran guard Terance Mann in the Nets' rotation on Sunday. Despite starting 51 games last season, Mann has not been in Brooklyn's rotation this year. The 30-year-old played his first minutes of the season during the fourth quarter of Friday's blowout loss to the Pistons.

Mann averaged 7.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.1 turnovers on .457/.364/.788 shooting splits in 24.3 minutes per game last season. He posted a +4.7 net rating swing (team points scored minus team points allowed per 100 possessions with a player on vs. off), the fourth-best mark on the team.

The Pacers will be without Tyrese Haliburton (Left Hamstring Strain) , Ivica Zubac (Left Ankle Sprain), T.J. McConnell (Right Hamstring Strain), Ben Sheppard (Left Meniscus Surgery) and Johnny Furphy (Right ACL Repair/Surgery) on Sunday. Obi Toppin is questionable due to lower back soreness.