Insider Insights: The Grizzlies Comeback Attempt Falls Short Against the Mavericks

The Grizzlies (6-16) lost their second consecutive game at home and second game to the Dallas Mavericks overall this season.

Memphis began the game with yet another starting lineup; Santi Aldama returned to the unit, replacing Bismack Biyombo, and it provided immediate dividends as the team started the game shooting 3-for-3 from deep, boasting a 9-4 lead early on. However, Dallas responded with a 15-2 run to take the lead at 19-11 midway through the first quarter and never trailed again. The Grizzlies battled back to cut their deficit to two at 26-24 before a Dallas corner three extended its lead to 29-24.

Jaren Jackson Jr. began the second quarter scoring the Grizzlies’ first seven points to help close the gap to 34-31, but Dallas quickly responded with a 7-0 run to extend their lead to ten points around midway through the second quarter. Then, Luka Doncic returned to the game and helped extend the Mavericks run to 20-6 to take a 17-point lead, and they rode that wave to a 67-51 halftime lead.

Jaren Jackson Jr. notched his fourth straight game of scoring at least 20 points, entering halftime with 21 points and four rebounds, while Desmond Bane had 15 points at the break. Unfortunately, there was not much production elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Mavericks had three players with double-digit points and a fourth player who fell just short of it in Dereck Lively II (eight points.)

just keep rollin @jarenjacksonjr pic.twitter.com/NeBr6o7QNr

— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) December 12, 2023

Jaren continued his impressive first half play into the third quarter by hitting his first two threes to cut the Grizzlies’ deficit to 12 points before Dallas went on its own run, extending its lead back to 17 points. Then, Taylor Jenkins took an early timeout with 10 minutes remaining in the quarter. While Dallas continued to hover around the same lead for the majority of the quarter, the Grizzlies went on an 11-3 run to cut the deficit back within single digits. But, once again, Dallas had a run to combat the Grizzlies’ charge; the Mavericks ended the third quarter leading 96-79.

The fourth quarter was a deja vu of the entire game, as Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane’s combination of 69 points wasn’t enough to overcome the struggles of the rest of the team, resulting in another loss at home, 120-113. The Dallas Mavericks led by as many as 21 points en route to their second win over the Grizzlies this season.

Jaren Jackson Jr. led the Grizzlies with 41 points, and Desmond Bane followed with 28 points and seven assists. This marked Jaren’s fifth time in the last six games where he has scored 20+ points and second time in that span scoring 30+ points.

Now for the takeaways:

Lack of Rebounding

Rebounding was the huge topic of discussion for this team after Friday night’s 54-28 discrepancy on the glass against the Minnesota Timberwolves, including Taylor Jenkins mentioning that the team got punked once again by the Wolves. The Mavs are much smaller than Minnesota, and they play even smaller, as they started 6’6” Derrick Jones Jr. at the four tonight instead of their normal starter, Grant Williams, who was out for this game due to a right knee bruise. Also, the Grizzlies outrebounded the Mavericks in their last matchup ten days ago in Dallas 52-42.

It is notable that Luka Doncic, who averages 8.3 rebounds, missed the last game, but in their first matchup against the Grizzlies in Memphis on October 30th, both Bismack Biyombo (7.0 rebounds) and Santi Aldama (6.3 rebounds) were missing from the Grizzlies lineup, as Dallas outrebounded Memphis 48-44.

However, after switching from Biyombo to Aldama in the starting lineup, the Grizzlies began the game still struggling on the boards as the Mavericks started with an 11-4 advantage before ending the first quarter with a 14-10 edge. The second quarter provided much of the same as the Mavericks took advantage of the Grizzlies’ scrambling defense, which led to them being out of position for rebounds.

The rebounding battle continued to favor the Mavericks as the Grizzlies were simply outhustled for the majority of the half until their late-game run. Ultimately, the Mavericks outrebounded the Grizzlies 43-38. It is back to the drawing board for the Grizzlies, as their starting lineup adjustment didn’t help them on the boards and they weren’t able to make up for the lack of rebounding with offensive firepower.

Failure to Contain Luka Doncic

The Grizzlies had played the Mavericks twice this season coming into this bout, but only had to face Luka Doncic in the first matchup, which they lost as he put up a 35-point triple-double on 50% shooting from the field and from three. Luka’s dominance versus the Grizzlies is nothing new as he averages 25 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists in his career, including three straight 30-point games and four straight games of either a double-double or triple-double against Memphis dating back the last two seasons.

He picked up right where he left off as he scored 11 first-quarter points, albeit seven of those points coming from the free-throw line. The Grizzlies switched on every pick, but Luka used his size to drive and get the foul calls to go his way early on. Then, Luka did Luka things in the second quarter as he scored 12 additional points with the dribble drives and step-backs to finish the first half with 23 points.

Luka cooled down some in the second half, scoring only 12 more points to finish with 35 points total, but he put up a well-rounded performance with six assists and eight rebounds, too.

Coming Up

The Grizzlies look to end their two-game losing streak as they travel to Houston to play a back-to-back home and home against the Rockets on Wednesday at 7 PM CST and back in Memphis against them on Friday at 7 PM CST.

Final Quote

“We all got to keep working, keep getting better. We can’t just keep leaning on Des and JJ” – Taylor Jenkins.