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Grizzlies outlast Heat to snap 4-game losing skid

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

All is well with the Memphis Grizzlies once again.

The grit-and-grind Grizz outlasted the Miami Heat on the road on Saturday, earning a 103-95 victory to snap their four-game losing streak. The skid was a strange one for Memphis, who were 21-4 to that point and appeared to be impenetrable on the defensive end.

Four games later - three of them without Zach Randolph - may have seen some panic setting in. Only one loss, to the Utah Jazz, could be called a bad one, but four losses are four losses. Playing without Randolph again, the Grizz took advantage of a Chris Bosh-less Heat squad dealing with their own issues, having now dropped four of six to fall to 14-17.

Dwyane Wade tried to pick up the slack for Bosh, scoring 25 points on just 17 shots and adding seven assists and four steals, but the Heat's defense couldn't deal with the pressure of Mike Conley (24 points) or the interior presence of Marc Gasol (22 points, 10 rebounds).

Playing small for the most part, the Heat got an unexpected outburst from Danny Granger, who doubled his season-high with 18 points in 28 minutes. That's a sentence that just got written in 2014: Granger with a season-high 18 points. All kinds of weird.

In any case, the Heat are simply too thin with Bosh out, and the Grizzlies took advantage with a balanced attack that saw six players score in double figures and nobody play more than 32 minutes. A night after an overtime loss, the Grizzlies are surely pleased with a road victory, one that pushes them back to 22-8 and within two games of the top of the Western Conference.

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