Mavericks suffer second-half collapse against Grizzlies
With leading scorer Monta Ellis struggling with elbow issues Tuesday night, it was like the Dallas Mavericks brought a tree branch to a backyard fight.
Needless to say, the Mavs needed all hands on deck against the highly touted Memphis Grizzlies. But with Ellis getting just two points on 1-of-11 shooting in 25 minutes, the Mavs didn’t have enough fight in them and Memphis eventually pulled away for a 114-105 triumph at FedExForum.
The loss means the Mavs (16-7) are a dismal 0-5 against the Western Conference teams that would be in the playoffs if the postseason started tonight. And that’s a record they’re certainly not proud of.
Ellis injured his (right) shooting elbow at some point during Sunday’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks and was questionable for Tuesday’s game. But he gamely was on the floor for the 187th straight game, although he was never a factor and looked tentative at times.
“I felt good,” Ellis said. “The shots just didn’t fall.”
Asked if it looked like his injured elbow impacted the way he played, Ellis said: “It just looked like that.”
A disappointed Ellis also said he will play Wednesday when the Mavs host the New Orleans Pelicans. But coach Rick Carlisle wasn’t ready to make such an announcement.
“I’ve got to talk to my trainer about it and we’ve got to talk to Monta about it and we’ll go from there,” Carlisle said. “But I can’t give you an answer right now.
“I know you guys all want to know if he’s going to play or not. But you’re just going to have to wait ... to find out.”
What the Mavs found out Tuesday is they flat-out need to get tougher in the paint, where they were outscored 52-26 against Memphis. With Marc Gasol (30 points, six assists) and Zach Randolph (17 points, 13 rebounds) roaming inside like a crazed bull in a china shop, the Grizzlies used a 36-17 scoring edge in the third quarter to pounce on the Mavs.
Behind a season high 18 first-half points from Jameer Nelson, the Mavs led 62-56 at intermission. But all those positive vibes came to a crashing halt in the third quarter when the Grizzles went into their physical mode.
“I thought we were battling, but we just gave up too many points,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who was just 4-of-17 from the field and had 11 points. “I thought even in the first quarter we had a nice little run and we were shooting the ball well and sharing it, but we still gave up [34] points.
“When you give up 114 points to a team that’s a slower team that plays a grind-out kind of style, that’s too many points. But offensively we were OK, even though I couldn’t make a shot and Monta was all banged up.”
Memphis opened the second half with a 19-5 run and eventually led 95-81 early in the fourth quarter. But with Chandler Parsons (a season-high 30 points) and J.J. Barea (season-high 17 points) firing 3-pointers, the Mavs kept chopping away at their deficit until they got to within 101-99.
Barea, however, missed a 3-pointer that would have given the Mavs the lead. From there, the Grizzles scored on a driving layup by Beno Udrih, a 3-pointer by Tayshaun Prince and a jumper by Mike Conley to go up 108-100 and basically salt the game away.
Parsons, who converted 10-of-18 shots, believes the Mavs’ problems Tuesday were mostly on the defensive end.
“We can’t fully rely on our offense like that,” he said. “We were good on offense and we were hitting shots.
“But it doesn’t make us entitled to not get back on defense and allow them to keep killing us in the paint and getting so many offensive rebounds.”
Especially on a night when Ellis was ineffective.
Dwain Price, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published December 9, 2014 at 11:15 PM with the headline "Mavericks suffer second-half collapse against Grizzlies."