Four things we learned in Mavericks 96, Grizzlies 110

The Dallas Mavericks now have a losing streak, as they played poorly and lost to division foe Memphis.  J.J. Barea was the leading scorer for most of the game until a late flurry of threes from Raymond Felton. That probably tells you about all you need to know in what was a fairly ugly display from start to finish.

Sometimes it's just not your night

Dallas shot 39% from the field and 32% from three. They committed 19 turnovers (17 TO's plagued them in their previous game against OKC). They sent Memphis to the free throw line 37 times.  You probably aren't going to win at basketball like that.  A recurring statement made on the telecast has been that this Maverick team has "little margin for error", but to put it plainly Dallas looked awful tonight. The crisp passing Mavs' fans have been accustomed to seeing lately was absent, and at the other end they were probably fortunate to only surrender 110 points, because the Grizzlies missed a bunch of open looks.

Slow start buries Dallas

96 points oversells the performance of the offense, as Dallas had just 60 going into the final frame. For the second game in a row a slow start put the Mavs in a hole; specifically, turnovers prevented any kind of rhythm from being established.  It goes without saying that the hometown Grizzlies were better equipped to play ugly.

Raymond Felton scored 14 points in less than 8 minutes, but it wasn't nearly enough

Hats off to Felton, who came in and despite making just six threes all year, buried all four he put up in a final comeback effort midway through the fourth quarter. He and Barea led Dallas with 16 points, but to echoing what I said above, that is faint praise, as that tandem shot the ball more than the starting backcourt of Williams-Matthews.  Despite Barea's scoring efforts, I'd prefer to see him shoot a bit less, to put it mildly.

JaVale's encore will have to wait

After a strong debut, JaVale McGee did not play against Memphis. With a back-to-back on the docket it is possible that McGee is being saved for the Spurs on Wednesday. Or, perhaps they're simply being extra cautious.  I'd have been curious to see if McGee could have done something to provide a little diversity to the Maverick offense, which at times fell into the trap of launching threes rather than probe for something closer in.

Dallas won't get much time to feel sorry for themselves after this one.  They take on the state rival Spurs in less than 22 hours, in San Antonio. Get ready, guys.