Grizzlies aim to tighten up on defense vs. Hawks

The Memphis Grizzlies consider themselves a defensive-minded team, but you wouldn't know it from their past four games.

The Grizzlies (36-29), who host the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday, suffered their season-worst fourth straight defeat on Thursday with a 114-98 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Los Angeles became the third straight team to shoot better than 50 percent against Memphis, which ranks fourth in the NBA in opponents' field goal percentage.

The 0-4 streak includes a 122-109 home loss to the league's worst team, the Brooklyn Nets, who shot 53.4 percent.

"We're getting away from our identity," guard Tony Allen told The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal after the loss. "Our identity is defense as long as I've been here. I thought we were a grit-and-grind defensive team. We keep teams in the mud."

The Grizzlies have shot less than 45 percent from the field in each of their past three games.

"If we don't play defense, we don't get confidence for offense," center Marc Gasol told the paper. "We slow down and that puts all the pressure on offense so we got it figured out. It's plain and simple. You've got to man up and do your job the best you can."

Memphis has been a .500 team since Dec. 6 and is now tied with Oklahoma City for the Western Conference's sixth seed.

"We need to respond with desperation," said point guard Mike Conley, who had 13 points, but was 3 of 14 from the field and missed all four 3-point attempts. "It's time. We can't (just) talk about it and continue to say we're going to do the right things. We've got to go out there and do it."

The Hawks (36-29), seeking their 10th straight trip to the NBA playoffs, currently sit in the fifth position in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta defeated Toronto 105-99 on Friday night for its second straight victory.

A 110-105 Wednesday win over Brooklyn ended a three-game losing skid for Atlanta. But 3-point defense remains a challenge for the Hawks, although the Raptors connected on only 4 of 25 attempts on Friday.

The Nets made 11 shots from behind the arc to become the 16th Atlanta opponent in 18 games to make at least 10 3-pointers. Cleveland set an NBA single-game record with 25 in a 135-130 Hawks' loss on March 3 in Atlanta. Three days later, Golden State made 20 from deep in a 119-111 win.

"One of the things we've said is keeping the ball in front of us a little better," coach Mike Budenholzer told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution when asked about the poor 3-point defense. "The other night (against the Warriors), to some degree, we put a lot of attention on a couple guys and some of the players around them stepped up and made shots. It's happened too many nights."

This is the first matchup of the season between the two teams, who meet again on Thursday in Atlanta.

Next up for Atlanta: a Monday trip to San Antonio to face the 50-13 Spurs.

The Grizzlies host Milwaukee on Monday.