Gametime: Grizzlies vs. Mavericks - December 12, 2012

Gametime

Zach Randolph (17 points, 13 rebounds) and Marc Gasol (11 points, 11 rebounds) dominated in the paint with double-double performances to help the Grizzlies beat the Mavericks 92-82 on Friday night. Rudy Gay contributed 26 points and four steals.

“I told Tony (Allen) ‘You are going to guard him whenever he is in the game.’ O.J. is a big catalyst of that team. He’s their leading scorer. They go around him to get in the flow, which allows other guys to get in the flow. He got into it. They had some other people score, but it wasn’t the same as when he is playing. We held them to 40 percent shooting and 76 percent FGA…We took a lot of stuff away from them. We played our game offensively. We had spurts of playing really smooth and spurts of being rallied, and we got the win.”

“Mike’s been playing well. He got in the paint a couple of times and got to the bucket a couple of times. He’s just been playing well all season. Eleven assists are great, and he had unforced steals. His defense was outstanding. I thought our defense all around was outstanding. Whenever we slacked up, they scored and came back on us. We were able to spurt out on them. I am proud of Mike getting the assist record. I didn’t know he was that close to it. He’s been here long enough. Jason (Williams) was here a few years. The longer you are in one place, the more records you can get if you keep playing.”

We don’t take anything away from winning. It’s really difficult to win in this league. The league is really balanced. You have to go out and play every night or you’re going to get beat. There is no dominant team. The closest one would probably be Oklahoma City. The second one would probably be the Clippers. Everybody else is out there scratching and clawing for wins. You just have to go out there and put your best effort out there and do what you can. You really have to win at home. I think since I have been here, we’ve started to do a lot better. In order to win, you really have to take care of the home court and then get wins whenever you can on the road to have a chance to be in the playoffs. Hopefully we’ll continue to win and go out and get a few more wins on the road. I always say, ‘There’s nothing better than a win in the NBA, except for the one on the road.

"After reading stories about and knowing what those young kids who survived the horrific tragedy went through, I wanted to contribute somehow. When Hurricane Katrina happened, we donated money. It’s just the American humanity thing to do. All around the world, I think everybody galvanizes when there is tragedy. We were just reaching out. We got way too much publicity for it. We did it because we felt like we should."

“When they made runs, it was because of mistakes we made offensively. We weren’t executing. We got big buckets at times. Rudy [Gay] got an and-one. Zach [Randolph] got an and-one and got to the free throw line. It slowed the game down a little bit. I was trying to speed us up and get us more opportunities to get back in the game. I think we have a lot of guys that take pride individually. It starts with Tony [Allen]. Everyone follows his effort. He gives off the same type of effort every night. If we do that, we should benefit from it.”

“It’s unbelievable. Obviously, being a part of history with other point guards that have played here – such as Jason Williams and those guys – makes it unbelievable. I’m just looking forward to adding onto it.”

“We actually like to play better defensively: move the ball better, screen better and play easier when teams try to force you to take jump shots. We like to play better out of that. I think defensively we did a great job. I think we’re really getting to people and getting that mentality of going out there and guarding people. We take it personally. If we want to be a good team, we have to be a good team defensively. It’s huge. Now we have to carry it on the road.”

“I treated him like he’s a regular opponent, as if he was a Kobe [Bryant] or LeBron [James] or what have you. I treated him regular and studied him. [Director of Basketball Information and Technologies] Jason March had maybe 15 minutes of film of his last three games, just all of his buckets. I watched that and sat here quiet. I didn’t really talk to my teammates today before the game. I just really focused on doing the task at hand because he’s been on fire. I went out there and carried it over because I pretty much knew everything they were going to run. Other than that, I just stood up to the challenge and waited for when my number was called.”

"I know he hates pressure when he brings the ball up. So anytime I saw him try to get the ball early I pressed up for it. I know he likes to go left, so I tried to distract his left hand as much as I could. He uses screens very well so I tried to not get screened tonight. That was my plan tonight. But for the most part, this wasn’t about me and O.J. [Mayo], it was about ‘the Grizzlies beat the Mavericks.’ All five guys are locked in. I think ever since halftime in Utah when coach came in and discussed it [defense], I thought everyone responded. We’ve been rolling on the defensive end ever since."