Another nice W in the books. The Brooklyn Nets took on the Memphis Grizzlies on the clays on Monday evening. The Nets gave the home crowd plenty to cheer for as they held on for a solid 106-104 win. The Nets are at .500 with a 4-4 record. Not too shabby.

The opponent is probably in a sour mood tonight. The reigning NBA champions are as great as ever, but the Boston Celtics lost narrowly to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. The C’s are a stellar 7-2 on the season and remain the favorites to win the championship this summer.

Where to follow the game

YES Network on TV. WFAN on the radio. Tip after 7:30 PM.

Injuries

Bojan Bogdanovic, Trenton Watford and Day’Ron Sharpe are out for the Nets. Noah Clowney is questionable, but did travel with the team.

Jaylen Brown is out with a left hip strain for Boston. Luke Kornet is doubtful because he has problems with his right hamstring. Kristaps Porzingis is out as he continues to recover from offseason surgery.

The other game in town…

Photo by Laura June Kirsch/NBAE via Getty Images

The Long Island Nets open their season tonight with a home game against the Maine Celtics at Nassau Coliseum. NetsDaily’s Scott Mitchell attended Media Day and will guide you throughout the season. That game starts at 7 p.m. and can be viewed on Long Island’s website and the YES App.

The game

It is always valuable to see how you can measure up to the very best. You get to see how far you’ve come and how much further you have to go to compete. And it’s fun! This is the first night of a particularly tough back-to-back for the Nets. Once this is over, they’ll be back on the road to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Brooklyn was a pleasant surprise to start the year, and we’ll see what they can do against the reigning champions. Games like these test your character. We’ll see how Jordi Fernandez and the boys do.

I haven’t heard much lately, but there was SO much complaining about the Celtics hitting a bunch of threes after Opening Night against the Knicks. We ended with the usual discourse on widening the playing field, television ratings, etc., and this successfully distracted from discussing the actual play on the field. That said, the Nets Real must ensure that they communicate perfectly about the defense. Two minutes of defensive mistakes can quickly put you 20 points behind Boston.

The Nets have done a fantastic job forcing turnovers and will be paired with a team that does a great job limiting mistakes. The C’s have the lowest turnover rate in the league, while the Nets have the fifth-highest opponent turnover rate. If the Nets can force Boston into mistakes, it will help them get on the run and find easy transition baskets.

When they get to the half court, they need a big play from Cam Thomas. CT shot just 6 of 17 against Memphis, but he has a great ability to bounce back from rough shooting nights. They will need him against the defensive duo of Derrick White and Jrue Holiday. Holiday will go down as one of the best defenders of his generation as coaches and fans love his ability to guard multiple positions and wreak havoc anywhere on the field. White can do many things as a guard and has the ability to get perfectly timed blocks. Their combined excellence means the C’s can give Brown as much time as he needs to get back to full strength.

Since this is a b2b, we will see how Ben Simmons is used. Ben10 was present on Monday evening, so he had a few extra days to recover and prepare for this match. Will he play tomorrow? Probably not, so don’t expect him to press the issue tonight.

Nic Claxton played both sides of last weekend’s back-to-back set and saw his minutes increase. Controlling the glass will be crucial against a team like Boston and the Nets need Clax to solve their early recovery issues. Coming into this game, Brooklyn ranks 28th in rebounding. That’s not going to get the job done.

Player to watch: Jayson Tatum

When you’re the franchise player of the defending champions, you usually get a little more respect. The “can you win the big one” questions end and the conversations about where you rank among the very best in the game begin. Outside of Boston, that really hasn’t been the case with Jayson Tatum. JT’s Olympic journey focused more on his lack of playing time than on how he fit in alongside icons like Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and LeBron James.

Back stateside, he isn’t the early favorite to win the MVP award and depending on how the season goes, he might not capture Boston’s first MVP since Larry Bird in 1986. JT is one of the bright young stars of the game and someone who will. break into those Top 5 player discussions soon enough. He also wants to invest in a future WNBA team, so we’ll see his profile rise even more as time goes on.

On the court, he ranks third in the league in scoring at just over 30 points per night on 48/37/78 shooting splits. He’s a damn good three-point shooter with such a high volume, but his finishing at the rim might be the most impressive part of his game so far this season. JT is shooting an impressive 92.3 percent on shots within three feet per Basketball Reference.

Three-level scorers are incredibly valuable, especially in the late stages of a tight game. Tatum has caused the Nets a lot of misery over the years, and he’ll look to do it again.

Dorian Finney-Smith has had a great season so far and is likely to win this job. DFS has been excellent so far and his versatility allows the Nets to experiment with different lineup combinations. Finney-Smith will be one of several options the Nets use against JT as they try to force him into tough shots. It takes a total team effort to slow down a superstar player, and a game like this will help the Nets figure out what the roster will look like going forward.

From the vault

Quincy Jones died earlier this week at the age of 91. Q is one of the most important figures in music and American history and he was an absolute titan. We could be here all day picking up his classics, so let’s go with three before we hit the road

Read more: Celtics Blog, SB Nation NBA