Brooklyn Nets: 3 things to watch against battling Memphis

3. This is the one the Nets have to have

The Brooklyn Nets open a sequence of three road games in four days when they face the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday and it’s the one they absolutely, positively have to get.

Without being too presumptuous, Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bulls is one the Nets should win. Yes, the Bulls have been playing better of late overall, with three wins in their last five games, but heading into Friday’s matchup at home against the Indiana Pacers, Chicago has lost two straight.

That includes a 114-82 blowout loss at United Center on Wednesday at the hands of the Orlando Magic.

Why Friday’s game is important is that Monday’s game for the Nets against the Boston Celtics on the back half of a road back-to-back is one that has to be considered a “schedule loss,” one of those games where you just can’t — because of the circumstances — count on.

It will be their third game in four nights, with a relatively long flight the night before coinciding with a time zone change after playing two straight games in the Central Time Zone.

So if Brooklyn wants to do what a playoff team should do on such a trip and get two out of three, the game at Memphis is the key. It’s the swing game, the one that could determine the difference between 1-2 and 2-1.

With the sixth- through 10th-place teams in the Eastern Conference so tightly bunched, that one game could wind up being very important come April.

Memphis is reeling right now, losers of three straight and eight of 10, so a quick start is important for the Nets (although a quick start has to come with the ability to finish, something Brooklyn has been better about of late).

The Grizzlies are coming into this game in the wake of major dissension in the locker room as well as a trade that will leave their roster at least one player short for the long-term and potentially two players down is Justin Holiday isn’t cleared in time to play Friday.

Throw in the fact the Nets — much as they did Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans — owe the Grizzlies one after giving away the Nov. 30 game by blowing a three-possession lead in the final 26 seconds of regulation and the recipe is there for Brooklyn to end its two-game mini-losing streak on the road.