{"id":278570,"date":"2025-11-08T04:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T04:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/278570\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T04:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T04:15:09","slug":"mavericks-disastrous-start-to-season-continues-in-road-loss-to-grizzlies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/278570\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks\u2019 disastrous start to season continues in road loss to Grizzlies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dallas Mavericks\u2019 disastrous start to the season continued Friday with a 118-104 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in each team\u2019s first game of NBA Cup group play.<\/p>\n<p>Dallas trailed by as many as 35 points in Memphis, and while it was able to cut Memphis\u2019 lead to 13 points in the fourth quarter, that was not nearly enough as the Mavericks suffered a fourth consecutive defeat and dropped to 2-7 on the season.<\/p>\n<p>Mavericks big man Anthony Davis missed a fourth game in a row with a left calf strain. Dallas has gone winless in that stretch.<\/p>\n<p>In Wednesday\u2019s game against the New Orleans Pelicans, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd tried to spark his team by inserting D\u2019Angelo Russell \u2013 a traditional point guard \u2013 in the starting lineup. The Mavericks lost to the Pelicans, but Kidd stuck with Russell in the starting lineup Friday. The results weren\u2019t any better two nights later. Russell only played 16 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Russell and Dallas\u2019 other perimeter defenders had a hard time keeping Grizzlies guard Ja Morant in front of them. Morant racked up 21 points and 13 assists. Memphis outscored Dallas by 28 points in his 32 minutes on the floor.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\">Ja Morant called DLo tiny \ud83d\ude05\ud83d\ude2d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NrTr2MA56D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NrTr2MA56D<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SportsCenter\/status\/1986979548697620910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">November 8, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Mavericks\u2019 30th-ranked offense didn\u2019t show many signs of perking up. Dallas shot 10 of 39 from 3-point land. Max Christie, one of Dallas\u2019 only bright spots so far this season, was responsible for four of the makes. Klay Thompson came off the bench for a second straight game. He missed all five 3-pointers he attempted.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, seven different Grizzlies players scored in double digits. Rookie Cedric Coward contributed 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists off the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Memphis ended a four-game losing streak and took a step forward after a drama-filled start to the season. Morant was suspended for Sunday\u2019s game for \u201cconduct detrimental to the team.\u201d Friday, he played arguably his best game of the season against reeling Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>The Mavericks have had the NBA\u2019s worst offense for most of this season, and they\u2019re now the owners of the worst record in the Western Conference. They face a quick turnaround. They play the Washington Wizards on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear if Davis will be able to play. Daniel Gafford\u2019s status is also uncertain. Gafford exited Friday\u2019s game in the third quarter and never returned with right ankle soreness. Gafford missed the first five games of the season with a right ankle sprain.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks\u2019 disastrous start to the season continued Friday with a 118-104 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[760,355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-278570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-dallas-mavericks","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}