Mavericks-Grizzlies Preview

By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN
Posted Apr 07 2012 1:22AM

After convincingly knocking off one NBA finalist from a year ago, the Memphis Grizzlies have quickly set their sights on avenging a loss from earlier this week to the other one.

The Grizzlies are eager to move two games ahead of the visiting Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference standings Saturday night.

Memphis (31-23) never trailed in an impressive 97-82 win over Miami on Friday, snapping the superstar-laden Heat's 17-game home winning streak. The Grizzlies led by double digits throughout the final three quarters.

"The first time I looked up at the scoreboard we were up 15 points," coach Lionel Hollins said. "We were playing well and we had a lot of people do a lot of good things."

His players seem to have quickly turned the page to Dallas (31-25), which won 95-85 at home over Memphis on Wednesday.

"This is a great win, but tomorrow we have a Dallas team that got on us two nights ago," guard Gilbert Arenas said.

The Grizzlies were a fatigued team that game, playing for the third straight night against a Mavericks team that had Tuesday off. Both teams played Friday heading into this rematch, and Dallas could be more tired this time after losing 99-97 in overtime at home to Portland.

Dirk Nowitzki notched his second straight double-double with 23 points and 14 boards, but his turnover with 19 seconds left in OT gave the Trail Blazers possession and set up LaMarcus Aldridge's buzzer-beating 17-foot jumper.

"It was kind of an instinct play," Nowitzki said. "You see a guy open, you want to throw it to him. Sometimes you make decisions in a split second. I made the wrong one."

The Mavericks led by as many as 15 points before scoring 10 in the third quarter - a season low for any period. They dropped one game behind Memphis into sole possession of sixth place in the West.

Reserve center Ian Mahinmi missed Friday night's game to be with his fiancee for the birth of their child. Mahinmi is expected to rejoin the team Saturday after he tied Nowitzki for the team lead with 10 boards Wednesday against the Grizzlies.

The Mavs remain without veteran point guard Jason Kidd, who has missed three straight games with a groin strain.

Memphis could again be without starting guard Tony Allen, who didn't play Friday with Quincy Pondexter in his place. Allen suffered a facial laceration Wednesday on a hard foul from Brendan Haywood with 5:20 left.

Pondexter was one of only two Grizzlies who failed to reach double digits in points Friday among nine who logged at least 12 minutes. Rudy Gay scored a team-high 17 points and Arenas had 12, his most since joining Memphis last month.

"There's nothing to celebrate," center Marc Gasol said. "We just won a game. Tomorrow is a big game for us at home."

The Grizzlies have won nine of their last 11 at home, where they haven't lost in regulation since a 98-88 defeat to Utah on Feb. 12.

Grizzlies take big early lead, hold off Mavericks

Posted Apr 08 2012 12:43AM

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) The Memphis Grizzlies landed a solid first-quarter shot on the Dallas Mavericks and dropped the defending NBA champs further down the Western Conference playoff ladder.

Rudy Gay scored 25 points, Zach Randolph added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and the Grizzlies built an early 20-point lead and held on to beat the Mavericks 94-89 on Saturday night.

In the tightly contested Western Conference, Memphis moved two games up in the race for fifth place on Dallas, which is in a three-way fight for sixth and barely holding on to a spot.

"We're now eighth or ninth, so we've got to fight," said Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki, who led the Mavericks with 17 points and eight rebounds. ".We've got to battle and win some games."

Gilbert Arenas added 14 points and made three 3-pointers, while Mike Conley finished with 12 points for Memphis, which won its second straight and seventh in the last nine games.

Arenas helped the Grizzlies hold on when the Mavericks rallied in the second half. His timely 3-point shooting turned back several Dallas runs, the long-range shooting adding a dimension the Grizzlies have wanted.

"It's like he's a video game player. It's just automatic," Conley said. "It's fun to watch when he's shooting like that, and we need that."

Added Memphis coach Lionel Hollins: "Gilbert hitting the 3s has been huge. He has brought in a new spirit for our guys, and it is contagious."

Brandan Wright added a season-high 16 points for Dallas, while Vince Carter had 14 points. Shawn Marion finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds in the Mavericks' second straight loss.

Memphis claimed the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Mavs by winning the season series 2-1.

"Looking at the standings should get us even more motivated," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. "I'm not a big watcher of the standings, but for anybody that is, it brings to the forefront the urgency of the situation."

The Mavericks weathered an early 20-point Memphis advantage and pulled close midway through the third period.

But the Grizzlies never let Dallas take the lead, although four free throws by Nowitzki down the stretch cut the Memphis lead to 92-89 with 21.5 seconds left.

Randolph hit a pair of free throws 6 seconds later, and Marc Gasol stole an inbounds pass in the closing seconds to preserve the Memphis victory.

"Tough isn't the word," Marion said. "It's just frustrating in all aspects. We dug ourselves a deep hole."

Dallas missed 13 of its 14 shots, finishing 2 of 15 in the first quarter. Randolph's 3-pointer as the horn sounded at the end of the first frame gave Memphis a 29-10 lead, the 10 points matching Dallas' season-low for points in a quarter.

"We came out with a fast tempo, getting baskets and stopping them," Randolph said. "They missed a lot of shots in the beginning. It was just coming out and playing our game, making defensive stops and getting out in transition."

Nowitzki missed all five of his shots and was 1 of 7 in the half.

The Mavericks got untracked in the second, scoring the first eight points as Memphis began struggling from the field. Jason Terry, who had 12 points on the night, connected on a couple of 3-pointers, and Dallas got the advantage under double digits, when Carter's drive with 1:36 left in the half made it 43-34.

Memphis carried a 50-39 lead into halftime as Gay had 14 points.

The Mavericks continued to chip into the lead in the third, starting the quarter outscoring Memphis 23-13, a rally capped by a 3-pointer from Carter. That pulled Dallas within 63-62, but Memphis pushed it back to 72-67 entering the final period.

Memphis got the lead to 10 once in the fourth, and maintained a five- to seven-point advantage through much of the quarter. Dallas shot 57 percent in the frame, but that was offset by a half dozen turnovers.

"The turnovers just killed us," Marion said. "That's how they were able to capitalize, and that's how they got the win.

".They played hard, but if we did what we were supposed to do, we should have won this game. I am not taking anything away from them, but that's a loss on us, not as much as on them."

NOTES: The Mavericks were without reserve forward Ian Mahinmi, who welcomed a new baby girl earlier Saturday. . Memphis G Tony Allen missed his second straight game after getting popped in the mouth during Wednesday's game at Dallas, resulting in seven stitches inside his mouth. .The game drew 18,119, Memphis' fourth sellout of the season. .Marion has at least nine rebounds in six of his last eight games. .Dallas shot 46.6 percent for the game, losing for only the fourth time this season when shooting better than 45 percent. . Memphis beat both teams who played in last season's NBA finals on consecutive nights and never trailed in either game. The Grizzlies defeated the Miami Heat 97-82 on Friday night.

Notebook: Grizzlies 94, Mavericks 89

Posted Sunday April 8, 2012 12:03AM

By Marlon W. Morgan, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: The Memphis Grizzlies capped off their stretch of seven games in nine days with a 94-89 win over Dallas Saturday night in a game that clinched the season series against Mavericks 2-1. Rudy Gay led the Grizzlies with a game-high 25 points. The Grizzlies went 5-2 during their stretch of games that featured wins at Oklahoma City, at Miami and against the defending NBA champion Mavs.

QUOTABLE: "We're finally at home. We get a day off and can rest a little bit and have a Happy Easter."
-- Grizzlies guard Mike Conley on the team finishing up playing seven games in nine days.

THE STAT: Dallas shot just 13 percent (2-for-15) in the first quarter and trailed 29-10. In the final three quarters, the Mavs were 32-for-58 (55 percent) from the floor and managed to outshoot the Grizzlies 47 percent to 39 percent.

TURNING POINT: The Mavericks trailed the Grizzlies the entire game, but a layup and a 3-pointer by Vince Carter pulled them to within 63-62 late in the third quarter. Enter Gilbert Arenas and Zach Randolph. The outside shooting of Arenas and the inside play of Randolph helped the Grizzlies regain their edge.

HOT: With his deadly 3-point shooting, Arenas has quickly become a fan favorite at FedExForum. For the second night in a row, the former All-Star guard scored a season-high, this time putting up 14 points on 3-for-6 shooting. Arenas was 3-for-5 from 3-point range and made all five of his free throws before leaving the game with 5:14 to go have banging knees with a Maverick player. Arenas is avering 11 points on .667 shooting over the last four games.

NOT: O.J. Mayo had an off-night for the second straight game, going 1-for-8 from the floor to finish with six points. In the last two games, Mayo is 5-for-18, and 1-for-7 from 3-point range.

QUOTABLE II: "Tough isn't the word. It's just frustrating in all aspects. We dug ourselves a big hole. We were playing good defense. We couldn't hit any shots. If everything could go wrong, it went wrong."
-- Dallas forward Shawn Marion after losing their second game in as many nights.

NOTABLE: Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki never got into a consistent rhythm, finishing with 17 points on 5-for-16 shooting. ... The Grizzlies, one of the NBA's worst 3-point shooting teams, have caught fire from behind the arc since the arrival of Arenas. They actually shot better from 3-point range, making 9-for-20 (45 percent) than they did overall (39 percent). In addition to Arenas making 3-for-5, Gay also hit 3-for-5 and Conley was 2-for-4. ... Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said he's starting to like the dynamics of having Zach Randolph come off the bench. Playing with Arenas, Mayo and Quincy Pondexter gives Randolph better spacing, Hollins said, as team's have to honor those shooters. Randolph had his second straight double-double with 15 points and 11 boards in 29 minutes. ... Dallas remains in eighth place in the Western Conference standings and finds itself trailing Memphis by two games, three in the loss column. Memphis also now owns the tiebreaker over the Mavs. ... Memphis had its second straight wire-to-wire victory. ... The Grizzlies became the first team to beat both defending conference champions on back-to-back days since Indiana in 2003-04 when the knocked off San Antonio and New Jersey.

UP NEXT: For the Mavericks, Tuesday vs. Sacramento, Thursday at Golden State, Friday at Portland. For the Grizzlies, Monday vs. L.A. Clippers, Wednesday vs. Phoenix, Thursday at San Antonio.

• Mavericks: Azubuike, Kidd
• Grizzlies: Arthur, Selby

• Mavericks: Haywood
• Grizzlies: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: FedExForum, Memphis, TN
• Officials: #55 Bill Kennedy, #59 Gary Zielinski, #70 Brent Barnaky
• Attendance: 18119
• Duration: 2:20