"Zach Randolph gets the ball on the block just long enough to draw the double team, then finds O.J. Mayo for the jump shot.

Mayo misses. So Randolph hauls down the rebound and puts in himself this time.

"Z-Bo!" yells the little girl behind me.

She keeps this up pretty much the whole game. She yells "Z-Bo!" and "Zach!" and "Zach Randolph!"

Then she yells, "Daddy!" and Randolph waves.

The little girl is his 5-year-old daughter, MacKenly.

"I like coming to the games when my daddy plays," she says.

Out of the mouths of babes, eh?

Grizzlies fans -- and coaches and players -- like it a lot, too.

The Grizzlies evened their record at 4-4 Monday night, defeating the Phoenix Suns, 109-99, and looking a lot like the team fans hoped to see when the season began.

The perimeter guys made plays and the bench performed respectably and, gosh, it's remarkable how much simpler the game becomes when you have one of the biggest, toughest, most gifted men in basketball working his tailbone off on your behalf.

"We played good without him, but you see the impact he has when he's out there," said Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins.

Randolph finished with 23 points and 20 rebounds. You don't have to be related to the guy to go crazy over that.

Small wonder the Grizzlies haven't been quite themselves since the start of the season, or since Randolph went down in the opener with a thunk. Has a banged-up tailbone ever caused a community-wide wince before? Has a team ever gone from bully to bullied quite so fast?

After finishing second in the league in rebounding differential last year, the Grizzlies didn't win the rebounding battle in any of their first six games. The Timberwolves outrebounded them, 57-43. The Lakers outrebounded them, 59-36."