Stoudemire ejected as Grizzlies overpower Mavericks

The day before one of the biggest games of the season against a divisional rival, the Dallas Mavericks took the day off.

Coach Rick Carlisle now admits that was a grave mistake.

The powerful Memphis Grizzlies took apart the Mavs’ porous defense Friday night and jogged off the American Airlines Center floor with a convincing 112-101 victory before a sellout crowd of 20,399.

The Mavs (44-26) finished their season-long five-game homestand with a 3-2 record. The homestand started with a 33-point loss to the No. 2-seeded team in the Eastern Conference (Cleveland) and ended with a double-digit loss to the No. 2-seeded team in the Western Conference (the 48-21 Grizzlies).

The Mavs also fell to seventh place in the conference.

It also left Carlisle wondering what happened to the Mavs team that came into the game sporting a three-game winning streak.

“We were poor in all areas, really,” Carlisle said. “Whatever you ask me about I really don’t have a lot of positive things to say, and it’s a situation where we all own it.

“It’s just really a very, very bad performance, and I’m afraid it’s going to look even worse on film. But I don’t know that, but I think that.”

The Mavs were only down 44-37 at the half despite some poor shooting. Then, the trap door collapsed in the third quarter when the Grizzlies went on a 28-9 run and widened their lead from 44-39 to 72-48 with 5:15 remaining in the third quarter.

That left Carlisle and the Mavs in a grumpy mood heading into Sunday’s game in Phoenix.

“We’ve got to have a practice [today],” Carlisle said. “We had a day off [Thursday], which was a mistake, obviously.

“[Today] we’ve got to get some work in and then we got to prepare for a very physical Phoenix team that’s another desperate team.”

Backup center forward Amar’e Stoudemire wasn’t around to see the end of the game. Official Scott Foster popped him with two quick technicals and an automatic ejection with 5:25 to go in the third period after he argued too vehemently about a call Foster made.

Carlisle chimed in shortly thereafter in defense of Stoudemire, and Foster gave him a technical foul, too.

Mike Conley, back after missing four games with a sprained right ankle, made all three free throws and Memphis was suddenly ahead 70-48 and in control of this game.

The Mavs got within nine points on three occasions in the fourth quarter — the last time at 99-90 following a Chandler Parsons layup with 3:48 remaining in the game. But Jeff Green made a 3-pointer, Conley scored on a driving layup and Tony Allen made a pair of free throws and Memphis quickly built its lead to 106-90 with 2:28 left in the game.

Dirk Nowitzki and Devin Harris led the Mavs with 16 points apiece, Monta Ellis, Charlie Villanueva and Parsons each scored 12 points, and Rajon Rondo had 10 points and six rebounds.

Zach Randolph (21 points, four rebounds), Marc Gasol (15 points, 10 rebounds), Green (15 points), Conley (14 points), Allen (13 points) and former Mavs forward Vince Carter (11 points) paved the way for the Grizzlies.

Dallas shot 44.7 percent from the field and outrebounded Memphis 41-38, but also missed 14 of 22 shots from beyond the 3-point arc. The Grizzlies, meanwhile, made 53.2 percent of their shots.

“It’s ugly, there’s no two ways about it,” Carlisle said, referring to the loss. “But we’ve got to take responsibility for it and prepare for the next one, and with a dozen left they’re going to go by quickly, and it’s an opportunity lost, unfortunately.”　

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 11:41 PM with the headline "Stoudemire ejected as Grizzlies overpower Mavericks."