Dallas Mavericks take care of business against Memphis Grizzlies

After falling to the New York Knicks, the Dallas Mavericks knew they had to make some adjustments. Those adjustments were clearly made as Dallas handed the Memphis Grizzlies a 138-122 loss.

The worst loss the Dallas Mavericks have suffered so far this year came at the hands of Marcus Morris and the New York Knicks. This is, of course, one of the more pitiful losses of the season for any team, but it was a good wake up call that the Mavs just may have needed. Young teams can sometimes get ahead of themselves and losing to the worst team in the league is some good medicine.

I like to refer to this loss as the Mavs first legitimate loss, and as such, this is the first time the Mavs really got to have a shot at some vengeance. Unfortunately for the Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas was out for blood and the shorthanded Grizzlies were the next team on the schedule.

The Mavs started scoring right out of the gate, but the Grizzlies did too. The first quarter featured 65 points scored with the Grizzlies leading 34-31 after 12 minutes. The teams kept trading buckets into the 2nd quarter until Delon Wright made a driving layup with 9:26 left in the quarter. Dallas would carry the lead the remainder of the game.

There were guys missing on both sides of the floor. Dallas was without Kristaps Porzingis, who sat as part of his continued recovery plan on the 2nd night of a back-to-back. The Grizzlies were missing their two rookies, Ja Morant and Brandon Clarke. Everyone else was available, but J.J. Barea did not see the court once again.

The Mavs were led by some guy named Luka Doncic once again. In just 29 minutes (his lowest total of the season so far), Luka poured in 24 points on 9-16 shooting to go along with 14 rebounds and 8 assists. Luka also only had 2 turnovers, another season low.

Other Mavs who had a solid night are: pretty much all of them. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 20 points on 7-14 shooting, Justin Jackson had 17 and Seth Curry had 16. All three of these are season highs for the respective players. Jalen Brunson scored 13, Maxi Kleber, Dorian Finney-Smith and Dwight Powell each had 11 and Boban Marjanovic (who drew his first start of the season) scored 9 in 16 minutes.

For the Grizzlies, Jaren Jackson Jr. was the hot hand, scoring 23 points on 10-17 shooting. Others in double digits include former Mav, Jae Crowder, with 18, Tyus Jones and Marko Guduric with 14 apiece, Kyle Anderson with 12, De’Anthony Melton with 11 and Jonas Valanciunas with 10.

Dallas won the game by 16, but led by as many as 22 in the final minutes. This was easily the Mavericks most convincing win of the season, which should be expected considering the opponent. The Mavs also continue their road winning streak and are the only team in the league still undefeated away from home.