SAN ANTONIO — The Nets opened their season with a difficult test, getting the Bulls in Brooklyn on Wednesday night — one they failed, as Chicago came away with a 115-100 victory.
And things aren’t getting any easier, as they not only face the Spurs on Friday night, but will turn around and face the Grizzlies in Memphis Saturday — the beginning of a Murderers’ Row of opponents over the first several weeks that could leave the Nets in a big hole out of the gate.
“I think you can look at the schedule and say, ‘That game is going to be a tough game, that game can be a tough game,’ but you never know,” Nets general manager Billy King said this week. “I don’t think you can worry about it.
“It’s like everybody says, you’ve got all these playoffs teams you are playing. Well, we were a playoff team last year. You don’t know if all the playoff teams coming back are going to be as good or not as good.
“On paper, everybody looks good. So sometimes you play a team early and you can steal a game because they may be trying to prepare themselves and may be not as sharp as they would be later in the season. So, you never know.”
The Nets hope that is often the case, as 12 of their first 16 games come against teams that made the playoffs last season — not including Oklahoma City, which didn’t only because of injury. That includes games against the Spurs, Grizzlies, Hawks, Rockets, Warriors, Thunder and Cavaliers, all on the road, before the calendar even flips to December.
It was the worst-case scenario for a Nets team that could have used a strong start, given the diminished expectations after moving on from Deron Williams and, for the first time since moving to Brooklyn, entering the regular season as a candidate to miss the postseason.
After the Nets’ first 16 games in the nightmare schedule, the opponents get significantly easier. If they can stay afloat, they could keep themselves in the race for one of the bottom spots in the East playoffs.
But a bad start could leave the Nets staring at a big deficit — and in danger of sending a high draft pick to the Celtics, whom they owe their 2016 first-rounder.
Avoiding such a start would necessitate better play than Wednesday, when awful beginnings to the first and third quarters doomed the Nets to a disappointing loss, despite a pair of comebacks in each half to make the score somewhat respectable.
“I thought we fought back,” said Jarrett Jack, who could return against the Spurs after missing Wednesday’s opener with an injured left hamstring. “There were some moments where it looked like the game was going to get away from us, but we fought tooth and nail and that’s a damn good team over there.
“That’s a veteran ballclub, they’ve been playing with each other, and their chemistry is definitely down. I just liked the fact we fought back in the game.”
Fighting back is fine. But the Nets will need to do better if they hope to make it out of this first month of the season alive.