Los Angeles @ Memphis preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 27, 2017 ) Memphis 109, L.A. Lakers 99

The Los Angeles Lakers are enjoying a season-best four-game winning streak and will try to push it to five in a row when they visit the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday. The Lakers dropped nine straight before embarking on their current streak and took the opener of a three-game road trip 107-101 in overtime at Dallas on Saturday.

Los Angeles' surge comes amid rumors that head coach Luke Walton might be on shaky ground, though team owner Jeanie Buss and president Magic Johnson both took to Twitter to publicly express their support for Walton. "Jeanie's always been great," Walton told reporters. "So, there's no doubt that they support me. I haven't seen the tweet but, again, I don't have Twitter. So, if you want to send it to me later I'll take a look, but I know they support me." The Grizzlies are already on their second head coach of the season after letting go of David Fizdale but still can't find the win column consistently and missed out on an opportunity to earn back-to-back victories for the first time since October when they suffered an 87-78 loss at Denver on Saturday. "Concentration and consistency has to keep improving for us to become a good team," Memphis center Marc Gasol told reporters after the loss. "Some mental mistakes on some plays we walked through, miscommunication or loss of focus, whatever it was, we had too many of those down the stretch."

TV: 5:30 p.m. ET, TNT, Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles), FS Southeast (Memphis)

ABOUT THE LAKERS (15-27): Los Angeles could find its way into the win column more if it figured out how to get consistent numbers out of power forward Julius Randle. The 23-year-old led the way with 23 points and 15 rebounds against Dallas and put up 22 and 14 against Sacramento on Tuesday, but sandwiched those around a scoreless effort on 0-of-6 shooting against San Antonio on Thursday. The Lakers are starting to pick things up on the defensive end and held the last three opponents to an average of 89.3 points.

ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (13-28): Memphis had a season-best string of six straight games scoring at least 100 points come to an end while shooting 39 percent in Denver. "Sometimes we get a little stagnant with the ball," Gasol told reporters. "When we create an advantage, sometimes we hold the ball and that flattens out our offense sometimes. We have to keep our advantage and keep driving and moving for the next guy sometimes. But they did a good job. Sometimes you just have to congratulate the other team and you have to learn and be better next time." Gasol led the way with 22 points and 11 rebounds but only two other players scored in double figures against the Nuggets, with Tyreke Evans and James Ennis III adding 12 points apiece.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The Grizzlies signed G/F Myke Henry to a two-way contract on Saturday and waived F Vince Hunter.

2. Lakers PG Lonzo Ball (knee) and SF Brandon Ingram (ankle) are considered day-to-day.

3. Memphis snapped a three-game losing streak in the series with a 109-99 win at Los Angeles on Dec. 27.

PREDICTION: Grizzlies 95, Lakers 92