Grizzlies 98, Mavs 82: Dallas Throws In The Towel

  Every time the Mavs called a timeout, it seemed, Dirk Nowitzki stormed to the bench to abuse whatever stood in his way. He angrily threw a towel. He slapped a folding chair and sent it crashing to the floor. Overall, the Mavs were never a threat to the building Grizzlies, losing at Memphis 98-82 on Friday.

   But the Mavs were undefeated against inanimate objects.

   An assortment of reflections on what is, oddly, Dallas’ third straight loss at Memphis:

   ITEM: Should we touch on what might be the singular bright spot out of this whole mess? Dallas might have one guy who played OK – one – and that would be rookie Roddy Beaubois, who was given his 12^th straight start at the 2 and did some things offensively that kept the Mavs in it early. He finished 4-of-7 and scored all of his nine points in the opening quarter. (Though he did rookie it up a bit by hurrying back-to-back 3’s.)

   And that’s it.

   ITEM: Every time I hear about how “young and talented’’ this team or that team is, I cringe. “Young and talented’’ doesn’t equate to “good.’’ “Young and talented’’ should be inferior to “experienced and talented.’’

    The Grizzlies entered the game at 7-12. They are the former.

    The Mavs entered the game at 14-5. They are the latter.  

    ITEM: Having said that … Between Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo and Marc Gasol and Darrell Arthur (out with an injury), Memphis has planted a lot of seeds here. At least one figures to grow into a star.

   ITEM: After a year-and-a-half of Rick Carlisle (and most Mavs followers) disagreeing with me on the subject of 3-point shooting, I think Coach is finally starting to come around to my way of thinking.

   My philosophy: If you are a poor 3-point-shooting team, Dallas’ answer of “Let’s shoot more of them!’’is backwards.

   The team’s philosophy in action? Dallas shot 29 of ‘em in Memphis. … and ended up shooting 35.2-percent from the floor overall. (Or roughly one-third what it seemed capable of shooting on Wednesday in New Jersey.)

   Rick, your thoughts?

   “We were trying to hit too many home runs,’’ Carlisle said.

    Yesssssss! Exactly!

    Now what are the Mavs going to do to correct this?

    Shoot more of them, I fear.

   ITEM: Memphis is sort of the forgotten team in the Southwest Division, maybe due in part to the fact that Dallas’ all-time record against that franchise coming in was 46-9. But you hate to lose to a Southwest Division rival.

   ITEM: Earlier this week, I made fun of the Sixers for putting on a full-court press in an attempt to force Jason Kidd into a turnover. It was pure foolishness. But here, Memphis pressed Dallas at least twice after made baskets … and came up with two steals.

   One of the victims? J.J. Barea, who accepted an inbounds pass, allowed himself to be trapped in the corner, and then had the Grizzlies pluck the ball from him as if this was a Father-and-Son Game.

    This came during the second quarter when Carlisle went to his usually reliable bench – and Dallas was suddenly being outscored 17-0.

   ITEM: One of Carlisle’s postgame trigger words was “aggression,’’ as in, Dallas’ lack of it. As evidence, I offer the fact that the Mavs shot just 10 free throws in the game, that Dirk shot just two in the game … and in the entire second half?

   “We shot no free throws in the second half,’’ Carlisle said, “meaning we became a … passive offensive team.’’

   Said Dirk: Our offense was just horrible. I've got to do a better job and find a way to get to the line. That's on me."

   ITEM: Which is worse: That Dirk scored just 16 points on 7-of-22 shooting? (Thus ending his streak of 20-point games at 14.) Or that he did it while being guarded by Zach Randolph, who himself scored 24 points with 16 rebounds?

   ITEM: Some Dallas stats in the three losses to Memphis: In the three games, Dallas is averaging 88.7 points and shooting just 42 percent.

   ITEM: The Grizzlies are 7-4 since dumping Allen Iverson and giving more playing time to rookie Sam Young.

   ITEM: In defense of the Mavs’ record, they have played 12 roadies … and are a very good 8-4 in those games. They have more wins on the road than some teams have had games, so. … there are future home games that should be in almost the bank here.

   ITEM: The 16-point loss matches the largest deficit of the season, which also happened in Cleveland.

   ITEM: Misery loves company, I suppose, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that while the Mavs were losing on the road, their Saturday night foe, the 13-6 Atlanta Hawks, were losing a home game, 114-107, to the lowly Knicks. And a reminder: I'll host "Mavs Magazine'' this morning at 10 on the Mavs flagship station, 103.3 ESPN Radio ... and then I'll co-host with Wally Lynn on the Mavs-Hawks pregame show, "GameNight'' at 6, again on 103.3 ESPN!

   ITEM: Another of Carlisle’s semantic bullet points after the game: “Force.’’ He used the catch-all word in otherwise generic answers to questions.

   “We’ve got to play with a lot more force than we did tonight,’’ he said one time.

   And, attempting to move on to Atlanta’s visit Saturday to the AAC: “We’ve got to play with a lot more force tomorrow,’’ he said again.