Mavericks Blown-Out In Memphis, 98-82

The Grizzlies' Zach Randolph Was a Beast Around the Basket, Bullying His Way to 24 Points and 15 Rebounds. (AP Photo/Nikki Boertman)

Dirk Nowitzki missed 15 of 22 shots from the floor. Jason Terry missed 11 of 16 shots from the floor. The Dallas Mavericks' (14-5) are not going to win many games when their top-two scorers have dreadful shooting games like this. Dallas shot 35.4 percent for the game as a team, which was actually a higher mark than Nowitzki and Terry, as the duo combined to shoot only 31.5 percent from the field. Both Terry and Nowitzki were one-two on the Mavericks in scoring for the game, Terry with 18 and Nowitzki with 16. Dallas, as a team, set a season-low in scoring with 82.

"I just think our body language was really soft," said Nowitzki, who did end up with 16 points and 10 rebounds. "I think we had good looks. We didn't set picks, but we got some good shots we usually like. The overall energy and body language wasn't great."

The Memphis Grizzlies (8-12) used a 17-0 run, after Dallas went up 34-28 on a Drew Gooden lay-up with 11:15 remaining in the second quarter, to blow the game wide open. The Grizzlies outscored Dallas 30-21 in the pivotal quarter and the Mavericks didn't take the lead again.

"We didn't defend well enough at the beginning of the game or really at any point or any stretch of the game," Dallas' coach Rick Carlisle said. "They were shooting around 60 percent most of the first half, and it was a cycle we never were able to withstand. ... You definitely can't win on the road playing like that."

O.J. Mayo led Memphis with 25 points, making five of his eight three-point attempts. Memphis came into the game 26th (out of 30 teams) in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage, but after Dallas went to a zone for the majority of the second half, the Grizzlies got hot. In fact, Memphis had a season-high in three-pointers made (9), finishing the game at 52.9 percent shooting from behind the arc.

"We haven't been a 3-point shooting team," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. "Dallas went zone on us because they figured they could take away our inside points. But we attacked it just enough where they couldn't stay in it."

Another deciding factor in this loss was the Mavericks reluctance to go to the basket. After going 10 of 10 from the free-throw line in the first half, the Mavericks didn't attempt a single free throw in the entire second-half. This was due largely to the fact that Dallas became an outright jump-shooting team, attempting 29 three-pointers and making only eight (27.6 percent).

With 2:51 left in the fourth quarter, after consecutive three's by O.J. Mayo and Mike Conley and a lay-up from Zach Randolph, Memphis had their largest lead of the game at 98-78. Dallas decided to wave the white flag, especially with this being the first night of a back-to-back, and Carlisle took a time-out, subbing in five new players at the dead ball.

This loss proves to me (and hopefully the Mavericks) that Dallas can't take any Western Conference opponent lightly. Memphis is an extremely talented, young basketball team that, in my opinion, would easily make the playoffs in the East.

Dallas plays again Saturday (Dec. 5) at home against the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta is coming off an ugly loss of their own, a 114-107 loss at home to the New York Knickerbockers, so this may be a battle of two good teams trying to prove something to themselves after a couple of bad losses.

The Hawks come into the game at 13-6 and are 5th in the NBA in scoring with 104.9 per game. Tip-off is at 8:00 p.m. and can be seen locally on Fox Sports Southwest.

News and Notes:

• Dallas is now 8-4 in road games this year which is 2nd best in the West and 5th in the NBA.
• Dirk Nowitzki saw his streak of 14 consecutive games with 20 points or more snapped. Nowitzki has only two games all year in which he has scored under 20 (other was Nov.4 against New Orleans with 12.
• Dallas had nine blocks for the game (a season high) led by Erick Dampier (4) and Shawn Marion (3).
• Marion also tied his season high for rebounds with 11.
  
• J.J. Barea played 12 minutes on the night, scoring 0 points on 0-5 shooting with two turnovers. Rodrigue Beaubois scored nine points on 4-7 shooting. Who should have been playing at crunch time?
  

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)