SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Memphis Grizzlies didn't have a long time to sit and mull the worst loss in franchise history, a 50-point shellacking at the hands of the NBA's defending champs.

Turned out that the quick turnaround was the best possible scenario.

"I couldn't be prouder of how we responded as a team," point guard Mike Conley said Tuesday after the Grizzlies beat the Sacramento Kings 103-89 at Sleep Train Arena, officially leaving behind their 119-69 embarrassment against the Golden State Warriors the previous evening.

"I've never been beaten by 50 points in the league, or before the league. Never," Conley said. "It's a long night, but you're eager to play again. ... We received a good talk from coach (David Joerger) after that game. Everybody was accountable. We addressed a lot of the issues that plagued us during that game, and we corrected them tonight."

Forward Zach Randolph scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Grizzlies, and Conley and fellow guard Courtney Lee each added 14 points. Reserve forward JaMychal Green added 12 points and 12 rebounds, and forward Brendan Wright also came off the bench to score 10.

"We had a big chip on our shoulder, losing by 50," Green said. "It was definitely a blessing to the play the next game the next day."

The Grizzlies, who pushed the Warriors to six games in the Western Conference semifinals last season, were outscored 72-27 in the middle two quarters Monday in Oakland to put that rout in motion. Against Sacramento, Memphis used the middle two quarters to put Sacramento into a hole it couldn't escape, outscoring the Kings 58-38.

"Our level of focus and determination was tremendous," Joerger said. "We had a lot of really good performances against a team that can play really fast."

Memphis forward Marc Gasol sat out the entire second half with neck spasms but finished with eight points. The Grizzlies didn't need him, as Randolph and Wright combined to score the first eight points of the second half, part of a 26-9 run spanning a 7:11 spell of the second and third quarters that blew open the contest.

"Ball movement stopped," Kings forward Rudy Gay said. "We made it hard on ourselves. They have good defense, and they try to take away your strengths as much as possible. They were able to do that."

Gay led Sacramento with 19 points, and guard Darren Collision added 18 points off the bench. However, the Kings once again failed in a bid to win without center DeMarcus Cousins. The sixth-year center sat out the game with a strain in his right Achilles tendon.

Without Cousins, the Kings started Kosta Koufos and rookie Willie Cauley-Stein in the frontcourt and used a 16-8 run to go up 29-25 after a quarter. Koufos, in his first game against the team he played with the previous two seasons, finished with 11 points and six rebounds, while Cauley-Stein added nine points and six rebounds.

However, Memphis held the Kings to six points over the first 7 1/2 minutes of the second quarter, and Sacramento saw its lead dissolve into a 35-35 tie with 4:25 left. One free throw from Lee and two from Randolph started Memphis on its run, and the Kings never were within single digits again. Sacramento is now 6-18 without Cousins over the past two seasons.

Cousins won't play for the Kings at Phoenix on Wednesday.

"Just one of those quarters where the shots weren't falling," Koufos said. "We've just got to continue to push, continue to get better."

Wright proved to be a key factor for Memphis. Joerger played him 14 consecutive minutes spanning the second and third quarters, and his defensive presence inside helped limit the Kings to only 32 points in the paint. Sacramento scored 80 in the paint in its previous home game, a 132-114 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.

The Grizzlies kept an opponent under 100 points for second time in their first five games and held the Kings to 39.2 percent shooting from the field. Opponents shot 48.9 percent against Memphis in the first four games before the Warriors torched them at a 51.2 percent clip Monday.

NOTES: The Kings are 11-34 without C DeMarcus Cousins in the lineup during his five-plus seasons. Cousins, now in his sixth campaign, missed a career-high 23 games last season, including the final six. Since Nov. 26, he has sat out 24 of Sacramento's past 70 contests. ... Grizzlies C Zach Randolph and F Marc Gasol combined to average 33.5 points and 15.3 rebounds in four contests against Sacramento last season, three of which Memphis won. Randolph played his 40th career game against Sacramento on Tuesday, and he entered with career averages against them of 16.9 points and 8.5 rebounds. ... Kings F Rudy Gay played his ninth game against the team that he debuted with in 2006. He was averaging 22 points and five rebounds against the Grizzlies since they traded him to the Toronto Raptors in January 2013. The Raptors dealt him to Sacramento 11 months later. ... Fourteen of Memphis' first 20 games this season are against playoff teams, including nine of the next 12.