Memphis, TN – Rudy Gay finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists to lead the Memphis Grizzlies past the Los Angeles Lakers, 106-98, at FedExForum.
Each member of Memphis' starting lineup scored in double digits, as Mike Conley poured in 19 points, Zach Randolph had 17 points and 12 rebounds, Marc Gasol netted 14 points with eight assists and Tony Allen contributed 12 points for the Grizzlies, who rebounded from their second loss of the season.
"We played team basketball, moved the ball around and made them work," Gay said.
Kobe Bryant scored a game-high 30 points to pace Los Angeles, which dropped its second straight contest.
Metta World Peace and Antawn Jamison added 16 points apiece in defeat.
"They are in the phase of trying to figure things out," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni admitted of his team. "We don't have a nice rhythm. Especially at the beginning of the game we did not. We have just got to do a better job."
After back-to-back layups by Darius Morris gave the Lakers an early 6-2 lead, Memphis reeled off an 11-2 run to go on top, 13-8.
The Lakers answered with four straight points to close the gap to one, but they could not take the lead as the Grizzlies outscored Los Angeles, 21-6, over the final six-plus minutes of the first quarter to take a 34-18 advantage into the second.
Los Angeles, however, netted the first 10 points of the second quarter as part of a 15-2 run to close its gap to 36-33.
But again Memphis responded with a 16-7 swing while LA made just one shot from the floor over that span to stretch its advantage up to 52-40 with less than three minutes left in the half.
Bryant put an end to the drought with a 3-pointer and the Lakers closed out the second quarter with a 9-4 push to get within 56-49 at the break.
Memphis then used another lengthy run to pull away in the third quarter, opening the frame with a 15-6 spurt to go on top, 71-55.
The Lakers trailed by double digits for the remainder of the third and trailed, 82-70, entering the fourth, where they slowly whittled away at their deficit to get within 95-90 on a Bryant 3-pointer with 5 1/2 minutes to play.
But after Randolph connected on 1-of-2 free throws at the other end, Bryant's 3-point attempt rimmed out and Allen converted a driving layup to rebuild an eight-point lead.
Los Angeles did not get closer than six the rest of the way.
Game Notes
Pau Gasol finished with six points for the Lakers. They fell to 0-5 this season when he fails to score more than 10 points ... Randolph has recorded a double-double in every game this season ... Los Angeles is 0-4 on the road this season ... Memphis held a 39-28 advantage on the glass and outscored the Lakers in the paint, 40-24.
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