Rupert ignited offensively, but depleted Grizzlies couldn't overcome Nets' depth and dominant rebounding in a tough road loss.
Rayan Rupert scored a career-high 20 points, but the Memphis Grizzlies dropped their fourth straight game Monday night, falling to the Brooklyn Nets 126-115 at Barclays Center with only eight players available.
Rupert, who poured in 16 of his 20 points in the first half, gave Memphis its best offensive punch on a night when the roster was stretched to its limit. Javon Small added 19 points off the bench. The effort wasn't enough against a Nets team that had a 67-40 advantage in bench points and controlled the glass throughout.
Day'Ron Sharpe matched a season high with 19 points to lead Brooklyn, while Ochai Agbaji added 18 and Nolan Traore chipped in 17. The Nets, who rested leading scorer Michael Porter Jr., had six players reach double figures.
Memphis jumped out to an early 10-point lead in the first quarter before Brooklyn went on a late run to take a 33-31 edge into the second. The Nets shot 58.5% from the field and 53.8% from 3-point range in the first half and led 65-57 at the break.
The Grizzlies made multiple runs in the third quarter to stay within striking distance, trailing 91-86 heading to the fourth. Brooklyn took over from there. Traore hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 101-90, and Agbaji followed with back-to-back buckets off feeds from Ziaire Williams to stretch it to 15. Memphis never recovered.
"We weren't really able to break down their defense the way they were able to get us into rotations and into closeout situations," Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo said. "In some situations, we were just two sizes too small underneath the rim."
Brooklyn held a 40-27 rebounding advantage and the size mismatch was a consistent problem for a Memphis team that dressed just eight players. The Grizzlies were without Ja Morant (left elbow), Scotty Pippen Jr. (right toe soreness), Santi Aldama (knee), Ty Jerome (calf), Cedric Coward (right knee), Taj Gibson (reconditioning), Taylor Hendricks (right thumb soreness) and Brandon Clarke (calf). Zach Edey and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope remain out for the season.
Memphis has now lost 11 of its last 14 games and falls to 23-40 on the season.
Earlier Monday, Brooklyn announced that rookie Egor Demin will miss the rest of the season with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Demin averaged 10.3 points in 52 games.
"With the pretty hectic schedule here — four games in five days — unfortunately we can't dwell on this a lot and gotta move on to Philly tomorrow," Iisalo said.
The Grizzlies travel to Philadelphia to face the 76ers on Tuesday.