You’re up by 26 at one point in the game. Up by 17 with 7 minutes left in the game. You have to think you have this game in the bag. You must think that. There’s no way any other thought is going through your head.
Apparently, the Kings didn’t have that mentality and let the big lead slip away. Sacramento Kings are defeated by the Memphis Grizzlies in Memphis on quite possibly the best finish of the season thus far.
Courtney Lee scored on a lob pass as time expired to cap a tenacious fourth-quarter rally, and the Memphis Grizzlies came from 26 points down to beat the Sacramento Kings 111-110.
Mike Conley led Memphis with 22 points and 11 assists. Grizzlies big men tandem had a solid night, Marc Gasol had 20 points with 7 rebounds while Zach Randolph finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds. Vince Carter had 11 to go along with 4 rebounds, including a trio of 3-pointers in a Grizzlies powerful fourth quarter when they outscored the Kings 35-19, connecting on 63 % of their shots.
Rudy Gay scored 25 points with 7 rebounds to lead the Sacramento Kings against his old team. DeMarcus Cousins added 22 points with 12 rebounds for the Kings. Ben McLemore had 17 points and 4 rebounds on the night. Darren Collison had 20 points and 5 assists for Sacramento.
The Kings got out to a hot start, hitting 13 of their first 17 shots. Memphis on the other hand missed its first 9 attempts and at one point in the game were 2 of 15, leading to boos from music city faithful fans. Sacramento led 38-16 at the end of the first on it’s way to a halftime lead of 16, with the score being 62-46.
Then the second half came and the Grizzlies outscored the Kings 65-48, including that ridiculous fourth quarter that saw the Grizz outscore the men in purple by 16 points.
Sacramento held a 110-109 lead, but McLemore missed a pair of free throws and Memphis grabbed the rebound with 0.3 seconds remaining, immediately calling timeout after.
The outcome wasn’t decided until after a lengthy review by officials who were trying to determine if the inbounds pass from Vince Carter with less than a second left was tipped by the Kings, and also to determine if Lee got the shot off before the horn sounded.
Here’s the Courtney Lee game winner.
https://youtu.be/lhxofVmzmt4
Carter inbounded the ball for the Grizzlies. Gasol set a pick up top of the key, but Gay and Jason Thompson failed to switch on defense, freeing Lee for the final shot.
Lee’s reverse layup gave him 16 points for the night on 6-of-9 shooting to go along with 3 assists while coming off the bench for the Grizzlies. The Kings have lost their third straight.
Sacramento Kings are 5-4. Memphis Grizzlies are 8-1.
Full Game Highlights
https://youtu.be/vPqs70ZI1HM
