The Memphis Grizzlies earned their sixth-straight home win with a 121-117 victory against the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night at FedExForum.
The Grizzlies improved to a season-high eight games above .500 (28-20), while the Kings fell to 20-27 on their regular season slate.
Six Grizzlies players scored in double-digits. From the bench, Jeff Green led all-scorers with 29 points and two rebounds. Marc Gasol finished the game with 22 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Courtney Lee dropped 18 points on the night, including 10 points in the first quarter, extending his hot streak in the opening frame. Vince Carter collected 13 points from the bench and Tony Allen contributed 12 points, pulled down five rebounds and swiped two steals. Zach Randolph tallied 10 points, five rebounds and two assists of his own.
On the other side, Rudy Gay led the visitors with 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Before leaving the game due to an ankle injury with 2:02 remaining in the game, DeMarcus Cousins notched 17 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds, registering his 28th double-double of the season.
Sacramento’s Darren Collison scored 20 points, while Omri Casspi and Rajon Rondo contributed 17 points and 15 points, respectively.
The Grizzlies outscored the Kings in the first quarter, taking a 36-22 point lead into the second period. While each team tallied 29 points apiece in the second quarter, Memphis held a 65-51 advantage over Sacramento heading into the half.
In the third frame, Memphis built their lead to a 15-point advantage, 92-77, as both teams entered the fourth quarter. With 8:59 remaining in the game, the Kings went on a 12-0 run to cut their deficit to four points, 104-100. Sacramento outscored Memphis 40-29 in the final period. However, the home team never lost the lead, and tied the franchise’s longest streak of scoring at least 100 points (eight games).
The Grizzlies continue the action with an away contest against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, Feb. 1 at the Smoothie King Center. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. CT and fans can follow the game on FOX Sports Southeast or listen in on 92.9 FM ESPN.
— Coach Dave Joerger
— Tony Allen</strong
On being physical and frustrating DeMarcus Cousins Obviously he’s an All-Star. Our whole game plan today was to basically try to limit his touches and try to make it difficult for him the best the we can. But obviously he’s a force at hand, but I thought we did a good job on him. — Tony Allen On Mike Conley’s play in the 4th quarter Obviously it was good progress for us. We scored a couple times. He needed to see that we got it back for him and he got a couple shots going. That’s good. I was happy obviously for us, but more for him. — Marc Gasol On team’s strong starts in games as of late We hope. We would like to, but it’s not always going to be like that. We’re not always going to score 65 percent of our shots in the first quarter. On the other hand, we have to try to get the other team under 20 [points]. That would be a good goal and a very achievable goal for us to try to keep the other team under 20 points and come down on them quickly. They get to the line a little too much – we’ve talked about it and coach talked about it. We’re fouling a little bit too much. — Marc Gasol Player Notes With 29 points, Jeff Green became the third player this NBA season with a three-game streak of 20 or more points, joining Ryan Anderson (4) and Will Barton (3), and is the first player in franchise history to accomplish the feat… He led the team in scoring in all three games during the home stand… Green was 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) from the field, and made three of his five three-point attempts (60 percent)… Green finishes the home stand with 70 points (23.3 per game). Courtney Lee and Jeff Green led the team with 10 points in the first frame… In the last five games, Lee has averaged 7.4 points in the first quarter on a 14-18 clip (77.7 percent) and 6-of-8 from deep (75.0 percent). Marc Gasol finished with 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting (50.0 percent), including a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe. He also pulled down six rebounds and dished out five assists. Mike Conley scored all eight of his points in the final five minutes to help Memphis hold off Sacramento… He finished 3-of-6 from the floor and led the team with seven assists. Kings point guard Rajon Rondo fouled out late in the fourth with eight assists, snapping a 14-game streak with 10 or more assists, one game shy of setting a franchise record for consecutive games… The streak ends as the second-best of his career behind his 37-game streak he set as a member of the Boston Celtics from March 3, 2012 to November 25, 2012. Kings power forward DeMarcus Cousins entered third in the NBA in scoring average (27.2), but was held to just 17 points on 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) shooting… He did record his 28th double-double of the season, pulling down a game-high 14 rebounds. Guard Darren Collison came off the bench to score 20 points, his fourth 20-point game of the season… The reserve guard shot 7-of-14 (50 percent) from the floor and finished with a team-high +10 plus/minus. Next Game The Grizzlies will hit the road and head to New Orleans to take on the Pelicans on Monday, February 1. Watch the game live on Fox Sports Southeast. Next Home Game The Grizzlies will return home on Saturday, February 6 to face the Dallas Mavericks at 7PM. Find Tickets.
— Tony Allen
— Marc Gasol
— Marc Gasol
The Grizzlies will hit the road and head to New Orleans to take on the Pelicans on Monday, February 1. Watch the game live on Fox Sports Southeast.
The Grizzlies will return home on Saturday, February 6 to face the Dallas Mavericks at 7PM.
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