MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Kyrie Irving news won the day. But the Nets lost the night, falling 132-120 to the Grizzlies before a sellout crowd of 17,794 at FedExForum.

Hours after news broke that Irving will soon be allowed to start playing home games, he poured in 43 points and added eight assists, while Kevin Durant had 35 points, 11 rebounds and eight dimes of his own. But their dominance couldn’t undo the Nets’ shoddy defense.

They dug an 18-point hole in the second quarter, clawed back to take a 107-105 lead in the fourth only to run out of gas and allow an 18-2 run that cost them the game.

“When you give up close to 40 points in the first quarter, and you feel like you’re playing from behind most of the game, the energy was shifted, the momentum was shifted on their side,” said Irving. “They were doing to us what we try to do to other teams, which is beat them in the first half and then be able to coast or manage the game in the second half, and they did that.

“We made a good run in the third quarter, but in that fourth quarter they just hit us in the mouth again and we just couldn’t recover.”

Brooklyn (38-35) is eighth in the East and mired in the play-in tournament. The Nets are 2 ½ games behind Toronto, and 3 ½ behind Cleveland for the sixth spot.

The Grizzlies were missing Ja Morant (sore right knee), but improved to 15-2 without him thanks to physicality, athleticism and attitude. They rode all three, along with Desmond Bane and De’Anthony Melton who each had 23 points and hit 6 of 10 from deep.

“We ran out of gas. We dug ourselves a hole. The first half was the game,” said Steve Nash, who had stressed fast-break points, second-chance points and points off turnovers before the game. Then watched his team lose the first category 27-14, the second 33-18 and the last by a damning 27-7.

“I didn’t think we had the requisite physicality in the first half, dug ourselves a hole, came out and played a really good third quarter, but ran out of gas,” Nash said.

Trailing 37-32 after Durant’s free throw with 31.3 seconds left in the first quarter, they fell behind by 10 on Brandon Clarke’s tip-in early in the second.

A Bane 3 left the Nets down 50-36 with 9:15 remaining in the half, and the deficit swelled to 18 midway through the second quarter.

Brooklyn trailed 63-45 after a Dillon Brooks floater and were being pushed around. It was 76-62 at the break before the Nets climbed back into it.

Brooklyn outscored the Grizzlies 42-27 in the third quarter, with Durant and Irving combined for 25 points in the period and Durant finding Bruce Brown for a layup to put the Nets up 104-103 after three.

An Irving 3 early in the fourth put Brooklyn ahead 107-105; but it was the last lead they’d have for the rest of the night.

A Clarke tip-in knotted it, and Bane found Melton for a 3 that untied it.

Bane’s back-to-back 3s put Memphis ahead 123-109 with 5:20 to play, and the Nets never challenged after that.