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Gay leads Memphis past Atlanta

Feb 3, 2012 - 3:55 AM Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - Rudy Gay led all scorers with 21 points and added six rebounds as the Memphis Grizzlies dominated the Atlanta Hawks, 96-77, at Philips Arena.

The Grizzlies had five players in double figures including 18-point efforts from O.J. Mayo and Tony Allen. Memphis also got a double-double from Marc Gasol, whose 11 point, 10 rebound performance gave the Grizzlies their second win in a row after dropping four straight.

Josh Smith led the Hawks with 11 points and Ivan Johnson added 10 points and nine boards as Atlanta saw its three-game winning streak come to an end.

The Hawks also had their six-game home winning streak snapped in the loss on Thursday.

"It doesn't matter how many times you've lost in an arena, each game is different," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said about the Grizzlies' inadequacy in Atlanta, where they hadn't won since 2005, a span of five games. "Even though there's a few guys that are still here that hadn't won here, it's still a different group and most of the guys didn't even know we hadn't won here."

Memphis' 13-2 run late in the second quarter turned the tide in the game as it gave the Grizzlies a ten-point advantage, taking a 53-43 lead into the locker room.

Defense was the key for the Grizzlies in the third as they held the Hawks to just 12 points to give them a 79-55 advantage heading into the final frame.

The Memphis lead would balloon as high as 30 in the fourth quarter, enabling the Grizzlies to run away with the ball game.

Memphis jumped out to an early lead with a 12-3 run but Atlanta was able to slow the Grizzlies down as they entered the second quarter trailing 21-19.

Back-to-back three's from the Hawks put them in front 25-23 with 10:56 to go until halftime.

"We've got to put up a little bit better fight than what we did in the paint" said Smith about his Hawks being beat 58-38 in the paint. "Hopefully everyone will learn from this game and correct it later on and just find a way not to have any let downs like that anymore."

Game Notes

Tonight's game marked the first of a three-game road trip for Memphis, which includes visits to Oklahoma City on Friday and Boston on Sunday...Atlanta's Jason Collins left the game in the first quarter with a sprained left elbow and did not return...Gay had three steals to become Memphis' all-time steal leader with 526...Atlanta will look to bounce back at home against Philadelphia on Saturday.