One game after Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers scored 56 points against the Memphis Grizzlies, the squad allowed the Dallas Maverick’s Dirk Nowitzki 32 points in a 108-97 Dallas win at the Pyramid on Thursday night.
The loss is the Grizzlies’ second in a row after a three-game winning streak, and drops the squad to 12-26. “We did a lot of things well, [but]we didn’t do everything well,” Grizzlies head coach Sidney Lowe said after the game. “Our transition defense was terrible.” More specifically, the Grizzlies allowed 21 Mavericks’ baskets on the run.
Forward Pau Gasol, who scored 26 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in yet another double-double, agreed. “We allowed too many easy baskets,” he said. “We took ourselves out of the game.”
Also out of the game in the second quarter was fellow forward Shane Battier who went down early with a left hip strain. Battier will undergo MRI evaluation tomorrow to ascertain the extent of the injury.
The loss of Battier left the squad to rely on its bench, and despite the loss, the bench performed and the Grizzlies ended the game with five Grizzlies scoring in double-digits. After Gasol, guard Jason Williams scored 16 points (and handed out eight assists), guard Rodney Buford scored 15 points, and forward Stromile Swift and guard Brevin Knight each scored 12 points for the Grizzlies.
The Mavericks, still missing All-Star guard Mike Finley who is on the injured list, relied on Nowitzki’s 31, and also on three other Dallas players who scored in double-digits: guard Steve Nash who had 20 points (and 10 assists), guard Johnny Newman, who scored 11 points, and forward Adrian Griffin, who ended the game with 10 points. Juwan Howard, who lit up the Grizzlies for 36 points in his last visit to the Pyramid, scored only six points.
The Grizzlies have only one day off before returning to action at the Pyramid on Saturday night at 8 p.m. against the Orlando Magic.
