 Battier, Gasol and head coach Sidney Lowe celebrate their first win of the season. Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty Images from Cavs-Grizzlies: 56k | 300k |
"I'm happy for our fans tonight," Battier said. They've been so great and everyone kept telling us to hang in there, you guys will get better, you guys will pull it out. And tonight, this was really for them. A team up against the wall is a dangerous team, so we were going to leave it all out there and try to go out after it."
"We needed to get that monkey off our backs," Grizzlies coach Sidney Lowe said. "They played tremendous. That was probably the best game so far. I am just happy to get over that hump."
After six years in Vancouver, the Grizzlies had lost their first eight games in Memphis, most of them due to a lack of execution in the fourth quarter.
It looked like it was happening again as the Grizzlies trailed 72-62 with 3:07 in the third quarter. But they went on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to 74-72 going into the final period.
In the fourth quarter, Memphis did not fold as it outscored Cleveland, 26-19. Battier's jumper with 7:31 left gave the Grizzlies their first lead since early in the first quarter at 84-83.
Stromile Swift followed Battier's jumper with eight consecutive Memphis points, all coming on easy layups around 7-footer Chris Mihm, that extended the lead to 92-86.
"Stromile and Pau (Gasol) just made some big shots," Lowe said. "Grant Long was huge for us and everyone just played well. Shane played a great game as well."
Swift, who lost his starting job to Pau Gasol, finished with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting. He and Gasol saw extensive time when center Lorenzen Wright left the game midway through the third quarter with muscle spasms in his back and left shoulder.
Along with Battier, they combined for 74 points and 20 rebounds as the Grizzlies outscored the Cavs 44-26 in the paint.
"It (ticks) me off because we are not much better than the Grizzlies," Cleveland coach John Lucas said. "Let's get real, we're not much better but we had control of the game for a long time and I told the guys at halftime that they were going to come at us hard because they were at home. We've been fortunate that we've stolen two road games but as far as being a much better team than the Grizzlies, we're not."
Lamond Murray scored 27 points to lead the Cavs (2-9), who host the Grizzlies on Wednesday. Andre Miller added 13 points after being listed as doubtful before the game with a lower back sprain. He extended his consecutive games streak to 175.
Miller showed signs of being hurt as he had trouble guarding Jason Williams, who had 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting and 14 assists.
"I thought Andre did what he could do," Lucas said. "Obviously, he didn't guard like I was hoping he could. But I want Andre to step up and make better game decisions than he made tonight."