"It kind of felt like we were struggling a bit," said Wallace (13 points, nine assists and seven rebounds). "The difference between now and in the past is we're able to recover."

Or as Okafor (20 points, 15 rebounds) put it: "Everybody trusts each other now. We're starting to operate as a true team."

They're 17-25 and have won four of five. That would be five-of-five had Boris Diaw's 3-pointer at the buzzer against the San Antonio Spurs not fallen short Monday.

They're learning each other, trusting each other, thriving off each other.

That's true whether it was Raja Bell, scoring 25 points and holding Grizzlies rookie-of-the-year candidate O.J. Mayo to 13, or Wallace scoring seven points and adding an assist over three minutes of the third quarter, or Raymond Felton bailing out two near-shot clock violations with jump shots.

Everyone's doing something but no one is trying to do too much.

"Everybody just understands it better," Okafor said of the offensive flow resulting in 50-percent shooting Wednesday. "How to get shots and how to get shots for teammates.

"Now people are saying, 'I might not score on this one, but someone will.' We're learning, 'Give yourself up for someone else.'"

Okafor and Bell gave up their chins to make this happen.

Bell was knocked to the floor by an inadvertent elbow from Mayo and Okafor went down when Grizzlies center Marc Gasol led with his elbow on a post-up move.

Strangely enough, Okafor was charged with the foul resulting from the collision.

"Happens," Okafor said with a smile and shrug.

They're becoming more rugged without becoming less precise, a reflection of what Diaw and Bell brought with them from Phoenix. Though this game was full of turnovers (a combined 41), the key statistic was rebounding:

Controlling the boards has never been a Bobcats strength, but they finished with 44 rebounds, 16 more than the Grizzlies.

"When you do things like that," coach Larry Brown said, "you always give yourself a chance."

These days those chances are migrating into victories.

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