Final: Grizzlies 96, Mavs 91
Box Score | Highlights
Behind the Box Score
Normally the Mavs don’t pursue a ton of offensive rebounds because of the way it can affect their transition defense, but that wasn’t the case at all tonight. Dallas dominated the glass, collecting 18 offensive boards on the night. It’s the most the team has secured in a game since Dec. 9, 2015. Maybe the Mavericks are reconsidering their strategy, or maybe it was a matchup-specific gameplan. Time will tell.
Tyreke Evans had an awesome night, but he was especially dangerous late in quarters. The veteran scored seven total points in the final eight seconds of quarters in this game, with five of those points coming inside one second remaining. Teams are always going to get some last-second buckets to beat the shot clock or to close out quarters, but very rarely do you see the same player do it three times in a row throughout a game. Those points certainly came in handy for Memphis as the game wore on.
Notebook
This was a wild game with a crazy fourth quarter that featured a few plays that easily could’ve gone either way. You wouldn’t expect a game between these two teams to go any other way, really; it always seems like they play close ones at FedEx Forum. The Mavs fell down by as many as 22 points tonight and mounted a brilliant comeback effort in the second half, ultimately taking the lead with just a few minutes to go in the game. But Mike Conley drained a shot clock-beating long 3-pointer to reclaim the lead and Memphis never looked back. This was a great display of intangibles like heart, grit, toughness, and so on — it would’ve been easy for the Mavs to tuck their tails between their legs after falling behind so early on, but they fought back and made things interesting. It will also prove to be a terrific learning experience for Dennis Smith Jr., who before tonight really hadn’t run the offense in certain late-game situations. The Grizzlies are very tough to beat at home, but the Mavs nearly pulled it off.
Harrison Barnes has gotten to the free throw line as often as he wants this season, but this was his first game in a while when he was also efficient from the field, too. It’s way too early in the season of course to worry about shooting percentages, because even the best players in the world go through prolonged shooting slumps here and there throughout an 82-game season. But it was nice to see Barnes finally sink some jumpers in addition to some shots around the rim. The Mavs will certainly need him.
Wesley Matthews continued his fiery shooting in this one, especially in the second half. He hit four 3-pointers in the third quarter alone to help lead the Mavs comeback. He’s had some enormous quarters throughout this season, most notably the second quarter against Golden State earlier this week. He’s more than bounced back from his 0-of-7 night against Sacramento in Game 2 of the season, which has been good to see. He probably won’t shoot 70 percent from behind the arc for the rest of the season, but the Mavs will happily take 40 percent, I can promise you that.
Devin Harris (personal reasons) and Seth Curry (left tibia stress reaction) didn’t play in this one. That meant more minutes for Matthews, especially, who played more than 40 minutes last night and was up in the mid-30s again tonight. That dude would probably have played all 96 if Rick Carlisle let him.
What’s Next
The Mavs (1-5) will play the Phildelphia 76ers (1-4) on Saturday at American Airlines Center at 7:30 p.m. Central.
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