Kings' defense sags; so does their record

The Kings won't have much time to think about it. Today, they'll take their 1-5 road record to New Orleans.

"I told our guys in the locker room, 'This is not who we are,' " Theus said. "We just have to play a better brand of basketball in terms of our effort defensively. Regardless of how many points we score, we have to be better defensively."

One of the few areas the Kings led was points in the paint (46-38). The Kings also committed only 10 turnovers to the Grizzlies' 17.

Rudy Gay led Memphis with 22 points, his fourth consecutive game of 20 points or more, and grabbed a season-high eight rebounds. Warrick came off the bench to record his second double double of the season with a season-high 21 points and season-high-tying 10 rebounds.

Theus refused to blame the Kings' troubles on the injury absences of Kevin Martin, Mikki Moore and Francisco Garcia.

"That's an excuse," he said. "We are better than this, even without those guys, than how we played tonight."

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