Grizzlies blast Kings for franchise-best seventh straight win

Memphis, TN (Basketball News) - Mike Miller scored a season-high 27 points to lead the Memphis Grizzlies to a franchise-record seventh consecutive win, a 109-95 drubbing of the Sacramento Kings at The Pyramid.

Jason Williams had 25 points and 10 assists and Pau Gasol scored 20 points with seven rebounds and six assists. Lorenzen Wright led all players with a season-high 14 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who beat the Kings for just the third time in the last 17 matchups.

"It feels good to have pressure to win games," said Wright. "Usually around this town, we’ve got pressure to get over 10 (wins). Now we’ve got pressure to get to 30, and it feels good."

Vlade Divac paced the Kings in points and rebounds with 17 and 12. Peja Stojakovic added 11 points and seven rebounds and Bobby Jackson chipped in with 16 points for Sacramento, which lost for just the third time in 13 games.

The Grizzlies led 32-28 after a well-played and high-scoring first quarter, but began to take over in the second.

Sacramento trailed just 41-39 on a Divac basket with 4:37 left in the half, but Memphis went on a tear to close out the first 24 minutes. Miller hit a three-pointer to start the run and Williams drilled one to end it with 10 seconds to go.

Memphis outscored Sacramento 23-6 over the last four-plus minutes of the quarter, and held a 62-47 advantage heading into the locker room. Miller’s 16 points at the half led all players, while Divac had 11 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Kings.

Sacramento pulled as close as 12 at 69-57 on a Divac bucket with 7:15 to go in the third, but Memphis quickly created distance again.

"They shot it well, I’ll give them credit," said Sacramento head coach Rick Adelman. "(Williams and Miller) were terrific. They made every open shot they had. They knocked down the threes."

James Posey scored with 3:30 remaining to give the Grizzlies their first 20- plus point lead at 82-61, and ended the scoring in the quarter with a pair of free throws that gave Memphis a 87-66 edge heading into the final stanza.

But Posey did most of his damage on the defensive end, making four steals and harassing Stojakovic into a 5-for-13 (38.4 percent) shooting performance. Stojakovic came into the game third in the NBA in scoring at 25.7 points per game on 49.5 percent shooting.

The Kings wouldn’t pull closer than 14 points in the fourth quarter.