Kings at Grizzlies
The Sacramento Kings built a four-game winning streak on fourth-quarter comebacks before falling into too big of a hole at Portland on Wednesday. The Kings will try to get a lead earlier and hang on when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday.
"Offense was stagnant at times, and then we were behind, we tried to make a 14-point shot," Sacramento coach Dave Joerger told reporters. "At one point in the third quarter there, we got nine stops out of 10 possessions and then we took three, one-pass jumpers. We got a little anxious." Joerger gets a chance to get his team into the gym for consistent practices now, with a trip to Denver on Tuesday the lone road game in the next eight contests. The Grizzlies made a brief stop at home on Thursday to earn a 114-80 win over Oklahoma City but are beginning a four-game West Coast swing with the Kings and will play six of the next seven on the road. "We got some great teams we got to play on the road and we’re looking forward to it, but we have to have guys in their rhythm," Memphis center Marc Gasol told reporters. "We know guys are coming back and fluctuate in the rotation every now and then, so it’s very important that everybody gets into their rhythm taking the road trip."
TV: 5 p.m. ET, FSN Southeast (Memphis), CSN California (Sacramento)
ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (21-14): Thursday's triumph snapped a two-game slide and showed a marked improvement on the defensive end after the team surrendered an average of 112.5 points in the two losses. "I just was happy with the effort," Memphis coach David Fizdale told reporters. "That’s all I cared about: seeing us play harder, sprinting back on defense, diving on the floor for loose balls. That part of our game, we just have to understand, can’t waver. We’re just not a superpower team. If we’ve got a chance to win big, it’s because we bring consistent effort every night." Gasol was a big part of Thursday's defensive effort with five blocks to go with 25 points and eight rebounds.
ABOUT THE KINGS (14-18): Gasol will spend plenty of time matched up against Sacramento star center DeMarcus Cousins, who scored 28 points in Wednesday's loss but went 8-of-19 from the floor and was the focus of Portland's defensive effort. "They really focused in on me and you could tell their game plan was to make everybody else have big games instead of myself," Cousins told reporters. "It was successful tonight. It worked." Garrett Temple (14 points) and Matt Barnes (13) were the only other two players in double figures in the 102-89 loss and second-leading scorer Rudy Gay (18.5 points) is in danger of sitting out for the eighth time in nine games with a hip injury.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Kings PG Darren Collison failed to score in double figures in four straight games and six of the last eight.
2. Grizzlies PG Mike Conley (sprained toe) sat out the last two games and is day-to-day.
3. Cousins went for 22 points and nine rebounds and Kosta Koufos recorded a double-double in Sacramento's 96-92 win at Memphis on Dec. 16, which marked Joerger's first game against the franchise that fired him after last season.