Grizzlies at Suns
The Memphis Grizzlies are having some trouble stringing together wins of late and will try to make it back-to-back triumphs when they visit the Phoenix Suns on Monday for the third stop of their season-long six-game road trip. The Grizzlies won consecutive games only once this month and have not taken three in a row since a six-game winning streak to open December.
Memphis could not stop Damian Lillard in the fourth quarter of a 112-109 loss at Portland to begin the trip but grinded their way to a 102-95 triumph in Utah on Saturday behind a season-high 28 points and nine rebounds from power forward Zach Randolph. "He was really disappointed with the loss the night before," Grizzlies coach David Fizdale told reporters of Randolph. "He really wanted that game in Portland. I saw it on his face after the game and the things he said after the game. He was really upset. I expected him to come out and play really well (Saturday)." The Suns are losers of three straight and did not hold an opponent under 100 points in any of the last 10 contests. Phoenix surrendered an average of 125 points in back-to-back losses to the Denver Nuggets last week and fell despite strong performances from point guard Eric Bledsoe.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, TNT
ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (28-21): Stars Randolph, Mike Conley and Marc Gasol combined to score 69 points on 28-of-46 shooting in the win at Utah. "We really did a good job of moving the basketball tonight," Conley told reporters. "Really playing off one another, especially when one guy has it going. We didn’t go away from that. (Randolph) had so many opportunities down low early and just kept trying to exploit that as long as we could, and when they took that away we went to Marc and when they took that away we went to me. We were just trying to go down the line and find different areas to try and attack them." The win lifted Memphis to 12-12 on the road with stops at Denver, Oklahoma City and Minnesota still to come on the trip.
ABOUT THE SUNS (15-32): Bledsoe scored a career-high 41 points on Saturday against Denver - besting his previous best of 40 set six days earlier - and is averaging 31.8 points in the last four contests. "He’s just being aggressive," veteran forward P.J. Tucker told reporters of Bledsoe. "Every single play, every time he goes out, he’s just being aggressive." Bledsoe's backcourt mate, second-year stud Devin Booker, is thriving on the offensive end as well and scored at least 20 points in each of the last 12 contests.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. According to an ESPN report, Grizzlies C Brandan Wright (ankle) will make his season debut on Monday.
2. Suns rookie PF Dragan Bender (ankle) sat out the last three games and is day-to-day.
3. The teams split the four-game series last season, with Memphis earning a 103-97 win at Phoenix in the final meeting on March 21.