Going inside the Grizzlies' 97-85 win over the Kings Sunday in Sacramento.
It was hard to not draw parallels to Nov. 13 in Memphis when the Grizzlies went up 21 points, only to see that deficit dwindle to 79-76 when Ben McLemore hit a free throw with 6:26 to play.
But while that night saw Grizzlies come back to win 111-110 on a Courtney Lee game winner the Kings protested (saying the shot came after time expired), there would be no late drama this time around.
Memphis went on a 19-6 run with Marc Gasol scoring 10 of his 18 points, including going 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
The cliche is that in the NBA, everybody makes a run; it's all about how a team responds.
The Kings made theirs and the Grizzlies responded in impressive fashion, following up an offensive outburst set off by Zach Randolph -- 22 points and 12 rebounds in taking advantage of DeMarcus Cousin's absence -- limiting Sacramento to three field goals in the last 6:54.
Randolph was the catalyst with his 11th double-double, but the Grizzlies flexed their balance as all five starters had at least 10 points, including Tony Allen, who had a season-high 13.
The Kings are third in rebounding, pulling down 45.9 per game. That they beat out the Grizzlies 42-35 on the glass wouldn't be surprising, but Sacramento was without the league's top rebounder in Cousins (12.6), who sat out with a virus.
Seldom used reserve forward Reggie Evans had 20 boards for the Kings -- as many as he had in his last four games combined -- including nine of the offensive variety that helped them score 58 points in the paint and shoot 47.1 percent (33 of 70).
After dominating the Clippers in the rebounding margin 52-32 last Sunday, Memphis hasn't fared nearly as well on this West coast road trip. They did hold a 45-42 edge on the Lakers and 46-45 against the Trail Blazers (the league's best rebounding team), but the 43 they allowed per game in the last three were substantially more than in the previous four game (35) and more than Memphis yields per game (41.3).
Amid a five-game winning streak it seems inconsequential, but this latest effort against a team missing its best rebounder is at least something to red flag.
Along with that NBA-best 15-2 record, Memphis is a perfect 11-0 against the West and owns wins against the Northwest Division-leading Trail Blazers, the Clippers (second in the Pacific) and Rockets (second in the Southwest).
The next two weeks, though, may be the most telling stretch of the season's first half for the Grizzlies.
They travel to Houston on Wednesday, followed by the Spurs at home Friday, then on Dec. 9 face the Mavericks before a brutal three-game stretch of the Warriors (Dec. 16), San Antonio on the road (Dec. 17), the Bulls (Dec. 19) and the Cavaliers (Dec. 21).
The Grizzlies have already put the rest of the league on notice during this start, but maintain it through that upcoming gauntlet and Memphis is going to head into Christmas being viewed as a legitimate title threat.
13 -- The Grizzlies pushed their November wins total to 13 which surpassed the 12 they had in 2012-13 for the most in the month in franchise history.
4 -- Memphis forced 23 turnovers in the win, tying a season high and giving them four games this season with at least 20.
