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Commentary on the alleged basketball game that transpired on Friday between the Dallas Mavericks (21-38) and the Memphis Grizzlies (22-36) is not worth the bits and bytes it took to make the web page you’re reading appear on your screen. You would have sworn you were watching an NBA Summer League game if it weren’t for the calendars hanging from your wall, letting you know it is, indeed, still February.
Nobody wanted to win this game — least of all the Mavericks, who outlasted the Grizzlies for the 124-105 loss at American Airlines Center. The dozens of fans in attendance were serenaded by a symphony of ineptitude on both ends of the floor. This was tanking in its purest form.
Cam Spencer led eight Grizzlies’ scorers who reached double figures, with 25 points on 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range in the win. Brandon Williams led the Mavericks with 16 points and eight rebounds in the loss. Here are, mercifully, just three quick stats from the game that was and should not have been.
6:02: Mavericks’ first-quarter stretch between field goals
Dallas put lineups on the floor against the Grizzlies that were unfit to compete against professional basketball players. It resulted in an early stretch of 6:02 of game time between made field goals for the Mavericks. Khris Middleton sank a long two-point jumper with 8:44 left in the first, and Dallas went 0-for-11 from there. A.J. Johnson finally ended the drought with 2:42 left in the opener on a driving finger roll through the lane for his second bucket of the game to bring the Mavs to within 22-14.
Dallas trailed 34-20 at the end of one, shooting just 25% from the field and turning the ball over five times. They had been on a better run to start games recently, averaging 54% shooting from the field in their last three games.
16/10: Olivier-Maxence Prosper’s revenge-game stat line
Further proof that we now reside in the Upside Down, Olivier-Maxence Prosper started for Memphis against his former team on Friday, his fifth start of the season with the Grizzlies. Prosper finished with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting against the Mavs, a huge step up in development from when Mavs fans last saw him play.
He has now scored 13 or more points in six of his last eight games. It’s hard to tell how much of that development means anything at all in the day-to-day reality of the NBA, as it’s all come during NBA Silly Season, but feel free to put a feather in your cap if you always thought he’d be something one day.
36-15: Memphis’ points off turnovers advantage
Dallas turned the ball over 21 times in the loss to Memphis, one night after turning the ball over 18 times in a 130-121 loss to the worst team in the NBA, the Sacramento Kings. The Grizzlies scored 36 points off those 21 Mavericks’ turnovers, all in the first three quarters, as they took their foot off the gas down the stretch in the fourth.
Max Christie and Naji Marshall combined to account for eight of the Mavs’ 21 turnovers on the second night of the back-to-back set.