Marc Gasol calls teammates' defensive inconsistency 'embarrassing and sad'

Marc Gasol is urging his teammates to do better.

The Memphis Grizzlies center wasn't happy with his team's effort Saturday night in its 105-83 loss to the Houston Rockets.

The 2013 Defensive Player of the Year called out some of his teammates - without naming names - for not putting forth a strong defensive effort for 48 minutes - or anything close.

"Defense doesn't work if it's four out of five guys, or three," he told reporters, per Commercial Appeal. "Most of the time it's two. Sometimes it's three, sometimes it's four, sometimes it's five guys, we get stops for maybe 10, 12 minutes, but it's not enough. It's not enough, no consistency, so it's going to be really hard to win consistently.

"You might win games every now and then. You might stay at .500, but that's not enough. That's not what we built here for 10 years. That's not it. That's not what we stood for. To me, it's embarrassing and sad."

Gasol, 32, suggested that selfishness is plaguing some of the players.

"I don't think guys are being selfish intentionally, but they thinking too much ... on themselves than on the team," he said. "We gotta get stops as a team. We gotta get good shots as a team. We don't do that, it's a ripple effect that's hard to stop. Once you allow some things to happen, it's just hard, it's hard."

Gasol paced Memphis with 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and two blocks in the loss. The Grizzlies yielded 105 points on 44.9 percent shooting from the field and 41.9 percent from 3-point territory.

It's their fourth straight game in which they've allowed over 105 points and it marks their fourth straight defeat. They're now at 7-8 - tied for eighth in the Western Conference - and could be in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in eight years.