Pau Gasol strives for perfection no matter who he goes up against in the NBA.

So he doesn't want to hear any excuses from the San Antonio Spurs, who had to play for a sixth time without Team USA star Tim Duncan and lost to Gasol and the Memphis Grizzlies 94-88 on Tuesday night.

Gasol, who would have matched up against Duncan, had 27 points and 11 rebounds while being guarded by a shorter Malik Rose as the Grizzlies posted their sixth straight victory and 15th in 18 games.

"I expect to do the same thing with Duncan here," Gasol said. "I came tonight without even knowing if he was playing or not."

Duncan, whom Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said was "just not ready" to play, is probable for Wednesday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

"It doesn't matter if Tim's here or not here - everyone has guys that are out," Popovich said. 

"All that matters is the win or the loss, and Memphis did a (heck) of a job."

San Antonio trailed, 90-85, before Turkish international Hedo Turkoglu nailed a 3-pointer with 56 seconds left.

After a badly missed jumper by Gasol, Rose grabbed the rebound and threw an outlet pass to Tony Parker near the left hashmark.  But Parker was not running off the miss and the ball went out of bounds.

"Just miscommunication," Parker said. "I thought we were going to call a timeout. He had a good idea to try and score a quick bucket in transition, but I stopped and it was just a miscommunication."

"I thought we were sloppy, just too many turnovers to win a basketball game," said Popovich, whose team forced just 10 giveaways while the Spurs lost the ball a season high-tying 26 times.

The Spurs slipped to 4-2 since losing Duncan, the two-time NBA MVP, to a left quadriceps injury against Dallas on February 26. Both losses have come to the Grizzlies, who took the season series, 3-1, after entering the campaign 4-27 against San Antonio.

After Rose's turnover, James Posey sank a difficult lefthanded layup with 13 seconds remaining to make it 92-88.

Then, following a missed jumper by Robert Horry, Gasol sank two free throws to ice it.

"We're very confident," Gasol said. "We're playing well in the fourth quarter and we feel like we can't lose in the fourth quarter."

The Grizzlies took advantage of Duncan's absence to outscore the Spurs in the paint, 56-26.

"Scoring in the paint is really important," Gasol said. "If you score in the paint,  you have a chance to win games.  We just wanted to be real aggressive."

The Spurs trailed at the half, 46-36, but received 16 third-quarter points from Parker to take a 67-63 edge into the final 12 minutes.  Parker, who scored 24 points, was limited to just two points by Grizzlies backup point guard Earl Watson in the fourth quarter.