Sure, the Grizzlies have lost six of their last seven games after starting the season 3-3. The stretch includes three defeats in the past four home games, and inconsistent individual play as well as maddeningly erratic team execution.

But there is another important word that applies to this season in which nine of the 14 players Memphis employs are 23 years old and younger.

Development.

Iavaroni made clear recently that his challenge to the young Griz is cemented in their growth through adversity.

"I think you have to remind them that the most important thing is that you are going to go through the painful learning process, and the lessons learned you have to apply it," Iavaroni said. "If not knowledge is power, it is the application of knowledge that is power and work ethic that are needed at this level. This is a tough, mean league."

All Iavaroni needs to bolster his point is a Grizzlies pocket schedule.

It reads: San Antonio Spurs at FedExForum tonight. It's the same injury-depleted Spurs team that thrashed the Utah Jazz , who bullied the Griz last Saturday night in FedExForum.

The Griz then play Utah and San Antonio on the road Wednesday and Friday, respectively.

Talk about a hard-knocks Basketball life. The hits keep coming as the Griz try to establish chemistry and mature on the court without losing a sense of hope in addition to games.

"Unless you are willing to be into it mentally and physically with toughness then you are not going to come away with results," Iavaroni said. "We have to earn the officials' respect. We have to earn the opponents' respect and we have to learn how to respect each other's game and move the ball - respect each other's game and help one another if there is a breakdown. We just have too many little breakdowns."

Just when it seemed as though the Griz formed an identity, realizing they needed to play scrappy and together to be competitive, they've mostly reverted to performances that seem disjointed and selfish.

The wayward behavior tends to come about in the second half of games. When the going gets rough, the Griz run wild.

They stop trusting the schemes and teammates on offense, and that has led to defensive lapses.

In the 12 games since Memphis' season opener, whichever team has won the third quarter has won the game. Overall this season, the Grizzlies are 4-1 when winning the third quarter and 0-8 when they don't.

"We don't ever come in the locker room and feel like a team was really better than us," rookie O.J. Mayo said. "We just have to learn to be more disciplined and put together longer stretches when we're executing."

Despite their continual rhetoric about how youth is no excuse, it's an inherent limitation in rebuilding stages like the Griz have undertaken. Young teams tend to run hot and cold from possession to possession, quarter to quarter and game to game.

There is no exception in Memphis, which uses a starting lineup of Mike Conley (21 years old), Mayo (21), Rudy Gay (22), Darrell Arthur (20) and Marc Gasol (23). That group's average age is just 21.4 years old.

"Memphis is a good young team, and they have a solid roster. They have some young, explosive players and they are very well coached, and so, they are going to play better as the season goes along," Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said after beating the Griz last Friday . "They played very well in stretches, but fortunately Jason Kidd and Dirk ( Nowitzki ) imposed their will on the game and that was the difference."

One of Iavaroni's teaching tools is undoubtedly the opposition.

"Our guys have been together for a very little time," Iavaroni said. "They are trying to understand how hard you have to work in this league. The San Antonios, the Utahs, the Bostons - they show you with every possession how intent they are on stopping you and executing at the other end."

Call Ronald Tillery at 529-2353 or read his Grizzlies blog at commercialappeal.com/tillery .

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Grizzlies vs. Spurs

When, where : 7 p.m. today, FedExForum

TV, radio : Fox Sports Tennessee, WRBO-FM (103.5)