{"id":40843,"date":"2025-11-08T08:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T08:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/40843\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T08:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T08:12:10","slug":"mavericks-new-reality-as-one-of-nbas-worst-teams-crystallizes-with-lopsided-memphis-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/40843\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks\u2019 new reality as one of NBA\u2019s worst teams crystallizes with lopsided Memphis loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEMPHIS, Tenn. \u2013 Late in the first half, as Memphis poured it on and the Mavericks <\/a>seemed helpless to prevent it, a reality crystallized that would have seemed preposterous before the season.<\/p>\n

Dallas truly is one of the worst teams in the NBA.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mavericks\u2019 record indicated that even before Friday night, prior to this Memphis Grizzlies\u2019 118-104 victory in FedExForum that was more grisly to watch in person than the final score indicated.<\/p>\n

Tied for last in the West entering the night, Dallas (2-7) now is in solo-last after dropping its fourth straight game. And guess what? The bottom might well keep dropping out Saturday night when the Mavericks play at worst-in-the-East Washington (1-8).<\/p>\n

Mavericks<\/p>\n

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The same Wizards whose only victory occurred on Oct. 24 in Dallas \u2013 by 10 points.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt just happens that we\u2019re struggling early,\u201d said Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, alluding to his team\u2019s ongoing offensive woes, but in reality describing things in general. \u201cSometimes it happens in the middle of the season. Sometimes it happens at the end. So we\u2019ve just gotta keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mavericks showed second-half fight Friday, cutting into a Memphis lead that swelled to as much as 97-62 with 4:40 left in the third quarter to 115-102 with 2:31 left.<\/p>\n

Not that the Grizzlies were ever in danger of losing. It\u2019s hard to believe this was the same Memphis team that brought in a four-game losing streak, or the same Ja Morant (21 points, 13 assists) who just four days earlier declared that he\u2019d lost his joy.<\/p>\n

Well, he found it Friday. If you didn\u2019t know better, you\u2019d wonder if he was auditioning to become a Maverick.<\/p>\n

This defeat dropped the Mavericks to an 0-1 start in the West Group B Emirates Cup standings, but that\u2019s the least of Dallas\u2019 concerns right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all communicating at halftime, like, \u2018What can we do?\u2019 \u201d said Max Christie, who continued his strong offensive play with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. \u201cNo one\u2019s coming to save us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t even on the coaches. This is the players. Like the coaches are doing everything they can. They\u2019re giving us the answers to the test with the scouting reports. … And us as players, we\u2019re not executing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Kidd: \u201cIt\u2019s on everybody. It\u2019s the coaches. We have to be better. We can always say the players can be better, but we all have to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to Kidd\u2019s comment about the timing of struggles. The problem with early-season woes is the real danger of digging yourself into a deep hole, leaving an arduous climb just to return to surface level.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Mavericks sorely miss starting power forward Anthony Davis and starting center Dereck Lively II, who on Friday missed their fourth and fifth games, respectively, but their returns guarantee nothing at this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally I\u2019m just kind of holding the fort down for all the bigs right now, until everybody gets back,\u201d center Daniel Gafford said.<\/p>\n

Gafford, though, has been on a minutes restriction since returning from a sprained right ankle. And on Friday he apparently tweaked the same ankle,<\/a> leaving with soreness after just 12 minutes of court time in which he was a minus-26, finishing with zero points and one rebound.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not like the rest of the Mavericks did much to stop this Grizzlies siege on what\u2019s left of the Dallas fort.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like deja vu,\u201d Gafford said of the interior injuries. \u201cWe were in the same situation last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to play in Memphis, where he was a collegiate standout in 2020-21, two-way center Moussa Cisse contributed 10 points and eight rebounds in just 14 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks entered the night near the bottom of the 30-team NBA in numerous categories: Last in average points (106.3) and offensive rating (103.2); 26th in field goal percentage (44.0); 28th in 3-point percentage (31.5) and 29th in rebound percentage.<\/p>\n

Conversely, they were No. 5 in defensive rating. Take away their 125-92 season-opening trouncing at San Antonio\u2019s hands and they would be a top-three defensive team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just that our shooting is horrendous,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cWe can\u2019t make shots on a consistent basis. We\u2019re getting great looks. But also … that is showing our defense is keeping us in the game, and so we have to keep fighting. Keep taking those shots. Keep practicing.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep working through this struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEMPHIS, Tenn. \u2013 Late in the first half, as Memphis poured it on and the Mavericks seemed helpless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,2582,103,4281,3080,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-40843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}