EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Richard Jefferson scored 27 points and the Nets kept up their torrid play, beating the Memphis Grizzlies 86-74 last night and tying a season high with their 10th straight win.

Vince Carter added 23 points for New Jersey (42-28),which also won 10 games in a row from December 16 to January 8. The last NBA team to have two 10-game winning streaks in the same season was Miami last season.

New Jersey built a 20-point lead in the second quarter and led by as many as 23 in the third before Memphis whittled it down to 67-56 early in the final period.

Despite having played a game 24 hours earlier in Memphis, the Grizzlies refused to fade and cut the lead to 81-71 in the final 2 minutes.

Pau Gasol led Memphis (41-31) with 21 points but was the only starter in double figures. The Grizzlies, who were held to their third-lowest point total of the season, had won six of their last seven games.

New Jersey has won 20 of its last 23 home games.

Starting the game, the Nets picked up where they’d left off from Monday’s 110-72 rout of Phoenix, hitting eight of their nine shots and taking an early 18-6 lead. They cooled down considerably after that and missed 15 of their next 19 shots as Memphis pulled to within 24-17,but that would be as close as the Grizzlies would get for the rest of the game.

Gasol, who scored a franchise-record 44 points the night before in a last-second loss to Seattle, scored 10 first-quarter points. But by the time he made his first field goal of the second quarter, with 1:09 left, the Nets led by 18.

While the Grizzlies went 8:31 without a field goal, Carter had 10 points as the Nets ripped off a 16-4 run to take a 47-27 lead.

After allowing more than 100 points in four consecutive games from February 27 to March 4, the Nets have given up fewer than 90 points in nine of their last 11 games. Through the first half last night, they had held opponents under 20 points in nine of their last 14 quarters.