MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Quincy Douby hung his head. He was at a loss for words when asked about his shooting troubles in the Kings' 109-94 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night at FedExForum.
"Terrible," he said.
That was roughly how the rest of the Kings described their defensive performance, which allowed the Grizzlies to end a four-game losing streak and extended the Kings' skid to three.
"Defensively, we just failed," coach Reggie Theus said after the Kings fell to 4-8. "Given they had three days off and fresh legs and got beat up a little bit in the paper, they showed some pride and played well."
The Grizzlies were coming off a loss to Milwaukee in which the Bucks grabbed 62 rebounds, 23 offensive. Against the Kings, rebounding was not an issue for Memphis, which controlled the boards 46-33.
"We have to rebound better than what we did," said Spencer Hawes, who shot 7 of 7 from the field for 14 points to go with four rebounds. "I think we gave up 110 or 120 (points). We can't win like that."
Hakim Warrick's 21-foot jump shot gave the Grizzlies a 47-37 lead with 5:52 left in the first half. The Kings, who never led, faced a double-digit deficit the rest of the way, trailing by as many as 23 points.
The Kings shot 36 of 80 (45 percent) from the floor and fell to 0-7 when scoring fewer than 100 points.
Douby struggled throughout, missing all nine of his shots, including five from three-point range. The Kings sank only 3 of 19 (15.8 percent) from behind the arc.
Memphis made 10 of 16 three-point attempts before a mostly mellow announced crowd of 10,834.
With a little more than one minute to play, Donté Greene momentarily reflected the excitement level on the Kings' bench. He yawned.
"We totally caved in, and I thought we caved in for a couple reasons," Theus said. "Being on the road is one. Our tendency is when our shots aren't falling, we let it affect us on both ends of the floor. I think that was a snowball effect."
The Kings won't have much time to think about it. Today, they'll take their 1-5 road record to New Orleans.
"I told our guys in the locker room, 'This is not who we are,' " Theus said. "We just have to play a better brand of basketball in terms of our effort defensively. Regardless of how many points we score, we have to be better defensively."
One of the few areas the Kings led was points in the paint (46-38). The Kings also committed only 10 turnovers to the Grizzlies' 17.
Rudy Gay led Memphis with 22 points, his fourth consecutive game of 20 points or more, and grabbed a season-high eight rebounds. Warrick came off the bench to record his second double double of the season with a season-high 21 points and season-high-tying 10 rebounds.
Theus refused to blame the Kings' troubles on the injury absences of Kevin Martin, Mikki Moore and Francisco García.
"That's an excuse," he said. "We are better than this, even without those guys, than how we played tonight."
Call The Bee's Melody Gutierrez, (916) 326-5521. To get breaking news alerts and game scores sent to your phone, text KINGS to 72737.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.