The Memphis Grizzlies pried open the New Orleans Hornets' defense as they charged ahead with a 96-91 win in a preseason game Monday night.
The game was played at the FedExForum in Memphis thus giving the advantage of home crowd to the Grizzlies. This was the seventh consecutive win in the games that they have played this preseason.
The Grizzlies were trailing 74-67 to start the fourth when Coach Lionel Hollins changed the lineup with O.J. Mayo playing point guard along with Xavier Henry, Hasheem Thabeet, Sam Young and Josh Davis. The quartet stormed back into the match with a 17-4 run where they earned defensive stops and clinched points for their team. The team was finally 83-78 in the fourth with 5:20 left to play, thanks to Henry's driving lay-up.
Mike Conley was the ace player of the team with his 9-of-10 free throws, and scored 19 points for Grizzlies. Rudy Gay trailed with a total of 16 points with Darrell Arthur and Thabeet each scoring seven rebounds.
The Grizzlies had 22 more foul shots than the Hornets as Henry stepped on the free throw line six times during the game.
Zach Randolph and Tony Allen of the Grizzlies sit out the game due to injuries; Arthur replaced Randolph at the power forward position during most time in the game.
The Grizzlies last won seven preseason games before the 2003-04 campaign when they advanced to winning 50 regular-season games and clinched the first of three straight playoff berths in the process.
