Just like a Memphis lounge act, Alonzo Mourning saved his best numbers for last.

Mourning scored eight of the Heat's 10 points down the stretch to help secure a 93-88 victory over the Western Conference bottom-feeding Grizzlies on Saturday night in The Pyramid and help Miami creep closer to a playoff berth.

Miami is 10-6 in second games of back-to-backs, including nine in a row, but far more significantly, after Friday's hiccup loss to the reeling Raptors in its playoff quest, the 28-33 Heat found a cure for the blues in Memphis and is now one game behind idle Washington and Charlotte (both 29-32) for the eighth and final playoff berth and 11/2 games behind the Pacers for the seventh spot.

"Right now this team needs to be an underdog," said Heat coach Pat Riley. "When we go out on the road we win and when we're home playing someone we're supposed to beat, like [Friday] we don't step up. It's hard to explain right now."

After rookie sensation Shane Battier drained a 3-pointer early in the fourth, the Grizzlies closed a 10-point lead (71-61 after three) to 75-72, but that's when Mourning took over. Over the next 3:14, Mourning dropped in a hook, a putback, a foul-line jumper and a resounding alley-oop dunk off a Rod Strickland pass to give the Heat an 85-80 lead with 2:52 remaining, and was never threatened after that.

"The guy [Mourning] showed a lot of courage out there after he was exhausted last night," Riley said. "We are pushing him and the team pretty hard right now."

Mourning, who had just six points and two rebounds in the first half, finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and six blocks.

"It gets to a point where I've been playing for 10 years and I don't think about [fatigue]. I just go out and play," said Mourning, who played 38 minutes.

"We have confidence in him and know we can count on him down the stretch," said Heat guard Eddie Jones, who had 16 points and four assists. He was one of six Heat players in double figures.

The Heat does owe a couple of ex-teammates some credit as Jimmy Jackson abused Grant Long in the first half, scoring 16 of his 18 points in an eight-minute span on wide-open 14-foot jumpers from the baseline. And inexplicably, Grizzlies coach Sidney Lowe left ex-Heat guard Rodney Buford in the fourth quarter and he hoisted up eight bricks to seal the Grizzlies' 12th loss in their past 14.

"We had four games in five nights and some guys were fatigued. We didn't want to let this slip away like we did [Friday]," Jackson said.

For a while the Heat reverted to lethargic play and frittered away a first-half 18-point lead as Battier scored five straight points to help give Memphis its first lead, 51-49, with 8:35 to play in the third quarter. On Battier bobblehead night, he scored all 11 of his points in the second half.

But unlike Friday's 6-for-30 second-half shooting debacle, the Heat remained composed as it has done during its 23-10 stretch and made 16 of 35 in the second half. The Heat bench, sparked by Jackson and Vladimir Stepania, outscored its starters 23-22 in the first half. Miami hasn't lost two straight games since Jan. 10-12.

"Based on that, we're going from no resolve to some resolve," Riley said. "We've got to keep winning."

The Grizzlies, coming off a franchise-high 60 percent shooting effort in Thursday's win over Indiana, were held to 39.3 percent by the league's top-ranked defense.

It could have been worse for the Grizzlies, who chipped away a 41-23 deficit by outscoring Miami 17-4 in the final 7:16 of the first half. Memphis showboat guard Jason Williams, who was playing his second game in a row after missing seven straight (15 of 17) because of ingrown toe surgery, nailed five straight points to fuel the run.