Winless Pelicans look to break through at Grizzlies

Because they were facing the prospect of playing four games in five nights, the Memphis Grizzlies took one for the team Tuesday night, resting veterans Mike Conley and Marc Gasol in a 36-point road loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The winless New Orleans Pelicans would love to experience anything close to that luxury as they dropped to 0-4 with an ugly 117-113 home loss Tuesday to the Milwaukee Bucks.

So when the Pelicans face the 2-2 Grizzlies on Wednesday night in Memphis, they will be a facing a relatively rested Memphis team on the second night of a back-to-back.

The only thing Pelicans forward Anthony Davis knows is that as the losses mount, his team is in danger of falling out of playoff contention less than two weeks into the season.

Davis is averaging 37 points and 13 rebounds a game, and yet the Pelicans have lost four straight because they have allowed 111 points a game.

"It's defense where we've got to become better, and that starts with communication," Davis said.

Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry, who never seems to get flustered, saw his temperature rise in the wake of his team's poor defensive outing against the Bucks. He called his players' lack of communication "the perfect storm."

"We've got a lot of work that we need to do," Gentry said. "We've got to get better defensively. We have to (get a win). It's on us. It's not on anybody but us. We've got to do the job. We've got enough guys to line up and play; then you got to win some games."

The Grizzlies have won the last five against the Pelicans, including four consecutive home games. In the most recent meeting, guard Lance Stephenson, who appeared in 26 games for Memphis last season, scored a career-high 33 points in a 121-114 overtime victory over New Orleans. Stephenson is now a member of the Pelicans.

First-year Memphis coach David Fizdale said he decided to rest Conley, his veteran point guard, and Gasol because of the heavy stretch of games -- the Grizzlies' only such stretch of the season.

Conley and Gasol both dressed but did not play. They watched as Memphis fell behind by 40 points at one point to the Timberwolves. The Grizzlies had entered the game making 43.7 percent of their 3-point attempts but managed just 4 of 24 against Minnesota.

Memphis shot just 36.5 percent overall and committed 22 turnovers. Wade Baldwin, a combo guard, started and committed five turnovers against just one assist. He missed all four of his 3-point shots. The Grizzlies came in Tuesday's game averaging only 13 turnovers.

"That killed us," Fizdale said of the turnovers. "The bottom line is you're on another team's court and you have to take care of the ball to have any chances of winning. Everything that could go wrong went wrong offensively for us. And then it carried over to our defense. They just ran us out of the gym."