The Dallas Mavericks beat the Memphis Grizzlies 120-112 Thursday night in Memphis, snapping the Mavericks eight-game losing streak.
Khris Middleton had a career night, with 35 points off the bench, 22 of those coming in the fourth quarter. It was the highest scoring quarter of Middleton’s career and nearly a Mavericks team record for points in a quarter, which Dirk Nowitzki holds with 29.
It was a very wild game, which is part for the course for this Mavericks team. Memphis was extremely interested
in losing this game by any means necessary, dressing only eight players and their starting lineup featuring mostly G-League-tier players. GG Jackson, Jaylen Wells, and Olivier-Maxence Prosper were the only credible NBA players that played for the Grizzlies tonight, and Hendricks inexplicably came off the bench and only played 24 minutes, despite scoring 17 points. Memphis wanted to lose this game.
The Mavericks, to their credit (or discredit, depending on what side of the tanking coin you fall on), did what they always do: play hard as hell. Dallas opened up a double-digit lead in the first quarter, before extending it to 20 before halftime.
Turnovers and sloppy play doomed the Mavericks in the third, where Memphis actually tied the game late in the quarter before the Mavericks got some late free throws to take a lead into the fourth.
From there it was the Middleton show, and Dallas comfortably one what was once a nail-bitter. Here’s what we noticed.
Khris Middleton was insane
The numbers don’t do Middleton’s night justice, although the numbers themselves are great: 35 points on 10-of-17 shooting, and 8-of-10 from three. Middleton didn’t rack up a lot of assists, but that’s because he was letting it rip as soon as he had the ball, and you can’t blame him.
Middleton scored 16 of the Mavericks first 20 points of the fourth quarter. He started with catch-and-shoot threes, then worked the mid-range with some post-ups, and by then it was over: he started raining down heat-check threes and desperation, bail-out long twos at the end of the shot clock. The Grizzlies did nothing to disrupt his rhythm and once Middleton was locked in, the game felt done and dusted.
There will be a segment of the Mavericks fan base dismayed that a 34-year-old veteran that doesn’t figure into the Mavericks long-term plans costing the team a crucial tank loss, but who cares. Yes, it would be cooler if the Mavericks won games behind their youth, especially Cooper Flagg, but Dallas lost eight in a row before this. Middleton can have a career-game, as a treat.
Paint points, again
Dallas is a top-five team in scoring in the paint, and they did it again against Memphis. The Mavericks went 24-of-34 in the restricted area and 8-of-15 in the “floater range” (in the paint, outside the restricted area.
Daniel Gafford was the biggest reason, with a monster 22-point, 14-rebound effort. Gafford had six offensive rebounds, and the Mavericks as a team had a ridiculous 21 offensive rebounds. All those second opportunities led to some easy putbacks and paint finishes. Dallas’ size was a clear advantage all game.
Cooper Flagg is still rusty
Cooper Flagg hasn’t really had a good game yet since coming back from his foot injury that sidelined him for three weeks. He struggled again tonight with 13 points on 16 shots.
His jumper is kind of broken again. Flagg was a decent 6-of-11 in the paint, but missed every single jumper he took, going 0-for-5 on jumpers. He just doesn’t look the same before the injury and surely part of that is timing, conditioning, and natural rust from such a long layoff.
There’s nothing too much to fret here, Flagg is the future and is allowed to have a bad week of games. But it is a bummer when he was skyrocketing upward right before his injury. It feels like Flagg got knocked back into November 2025, and it’s like his development just hit rewind. That’s not the real story, and Flagg will be fine. These games have just been a bummer for him.
