3 stats from the Mavericks 97-90 loss against the Grizzlies

The Dallas Mavericks took on a tough Memphis Grizzlies team on the second night of a back-to-back, falling 97-90. Despite a slow start to the night, Dallas got hot in the fourth to try and close the gap, but it wasn’t enough. The Mavs were without Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, so every takeaway must be taken with a grain of salt.

31.8%

The Mavericks’ field goal percentage in the first quarter. To start the game, Dallas struggled to get their offense going, going down 13-2 in the first four minutes. Not having Doncic out there gave Dallas a lot of problems. Jalen Brunson filled his starting spot and became the primary facilitator, but the offense never really looked like it got going. Dallas scored 37 in the first half to Memphis’ 49, which put them in quite the hole to start the third quarter with a lot of ground to make up.

22

Memphis turnovers. When an opposing team commits that many turnovers, it’s very difficult to still lose the game. The Grizzlies were without Ja Morant, so their offense was missing their most important piece as well. The high number of turnovers could be attributed to not having Morant, Memphis being a younger team, or an occasional drawn charge by the Mavericks. In terms of an eye test, there’s still a lot of room for improvement on the defensive end for the Mavericks. Whether that be a schematic change, lineup change, or personnel change is up to the staff. We’ll see what they decide moving forward.

29

Tim Hardaway Jr. points off the bench. With Doncic and Porzingis out, I was surprised to see Hardaway still coming off the bench. He has shown yet again that he’s flexible and productive no matter what his role is. On a rough shooting night for the team, Hardaway was the primary bright spot on the offensive end, especially in the fourth. He finished with 29 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals while going 5-of-7 from three and 10-of-14 from the free throw line. Hardaway is someone who’s versatile and capable of going off offensively at any moment which is vital for this group. It’s clear they’ve got some work to do in terms of lineup tweaking but having a player like Hardaway who openly takes on any role and continues to prove that he can be successful in each of them is huge.

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