The Dallas Mavericks (2-7) put on their most putrid, pitiful, pathetic performance in Friday’s 118-104 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies (4-6) to open up NBA Cup play at the Fedex Forum. The defense was listless and the offense was hopeless in a stunning display of cowardly ineptitude for the team’s fourth straight loss.
To call this team broken would be a generous appraisal of the sad, sad state of affairs. This team has been pulverized into jagged scraps by its own front office’s violent incompetence,
and you can only laugh at the results on the floor to keep from crying… or puking.
With the game’s outcome already decided at halftime, the Mavericks basically gave up in the third quarter, and there’s no need to belabor it anymore in this particular post, so here are the stupid stats from a very stupid basketball game.
4-of-5: Ja Morant’s shooting start
If you were late tuning in for the start of Mavericks at Grizzlies, Dallas was probably already down double digits by the time you got around to it. Ja Morant’s strong drive through the lane for a score with 6:17 left in the first quarter put the Grizzlies up 23-11. It was also his fourth make in five shot attempts in the first six minutes of the game. Morant came in on a rough shooting stretch over his last three games, when he went just 14-for-49 (28%).
Are you having a rough go recently? Apparently, it’s nothing a game against the Mavericks can’t fix, as Dallas seems to be everybody’s get-right game to start the 2025-26 season. Morant ignited a Memphis offense that made eight of its first 11 shots to start the game after calls were made to trade the grumpy former superstar amid disagreements with Grizzlies coach Tuomas Lisalo that resulted in a one-game suspension earlier this week.
Morant scored eight and dished five assists before being subbed out midway through the first quarter. He finished the first quarter with 12 and five as Memphis took a 34-24 lead at the end of one. It was the first time this season that the Grizzlies have had a lead at the end of the first quarter.
Morant didn’t score in the second quarter but still completed a double-double in the first half with his 12 points and 10 assists. He and rookie Cedric Coward finished with a game-high 21 points apiece in the win.
3: First-half Dallas fouls against Memphis 3-point shooters
The boneheadery never ceases with this team. Dwight Powell fouled Santi Aldama on a made 3-pointer with 4:29 left in the first quarter, but the Mavericks were spared the four-point play when Aldama missed the ensuing free throw. Memphis led 28-15 at the time.
Then in the second quarter, P.J. Washington crept into the landing space of Memphis 3-point shooters, not once but twice. On his second violation, again against Aldama in the left corner, he was called for a flagrant foul-1 for reckless closeout. The free points were self-inflicted wounds indicative of a lazy, unfocused defense on a night when the Grizzlies shot 10-of-21 (47.1%) from deep in the first half on their way to a stupefying 74-51 lead at the break.
Aldama led all scorers at the half with 14 points off the Memphis bench on 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range.
Minus-18: Dallas’ 3-point scoring differential at halftime
The Grizzlies led by 23 points at halftime, and most of it came from the 3-point line. Memphis outscored the Mavs by 18 from beyond the arc in the first half to put Dallas to bed early on Friday. While Aldama went 3-for-5 and scored three more points when Washington fouled him on another attempt, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jaren Jackson Jr. combined to shoot 4-for-6 from deep in the first half as well.
Meanwhile, Dallas was atrocious from distance, shooting an ice-cold 4-for-17 (23.5%). Every Maverick not named Max Christie combined to shoot a dismal 2-of-14. Washington, Cooper Flagg and Klay Thompson combined for a God-awful 2-of-11 in the first half. Dallas came into the game shooting 31.5% from 3-point land through the season’s first eight games, 28th in the NBA.
Christie led the Mavs with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting (4-of-7 from 3-point range) in the loss.
18-5: Mavericks’ too-little-too-late third-quarter run
Moussa Cisse, of all people, subbed in as the third quarter dragged on and sparked a tiny glimmer of life into the Mavericks’ offense, scoring eight points on three highlight dunks and grabbing five rebounds late in the third. All eight of those points came as part of an 18-5 Dallas run after the Grizzlies built their largest lead of the night, 97-62, on a drive by Jackson Jr. with 4:40 left in the third.
All that run accomplished, though, was cut the Memphis lead to 22, 102-80, headed into the fourth quarter. Cisse, the recipient of the team’s third and final two-way contract this year, was the only Maverick who brought even an ounce of juice to Memphis. He ended the night with 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting and eight boards off the furthest reaches of the Dallas bench.
Dallas continued to cut into the Memphis lead throughout the fourth quarter, but couldn’t undo the horror show the Mavs put on in the first half.
