Going to do a shorter-than-usual notebook for this one. Will finish up the “Mid-Season Player Notes” series Thursday.
The Lead: After winning five of six games before the All-Star break, the Grizzlies continued their winning ways to begin the second half, beating the defending champion and division rival Dallas Mavericks. With losses from a trio of other conference competitors — the Spurs, Rockets, and Blazers — the Grizzlies, at 20-15, are now closer to the third seed (1.5 games back) than they are to falling out of the playoffs (a two-game cushion).
It wasn’t always pretty (the teams combined to shoot 6-35 from three-point range) and the Grizzlies got some help from the Mavericks: Dirk Nowitzki labored without a field goal through 10 minutes of game time, having his lone shot, a baseline fade-away jumper, blocked by Marc Gasol before retreating to the locker room for the rest of the night with lower back tightness. But the Grizzlies got a bravura tag-team performance from Mike Conley (20 points, 10 assists, 4 steals) and Marc Gasol (22 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks), who, appropriately, connected for the team’s final field goal, a baseline feed from Gasol that Conley converted at the rim.
Now they’ll head into a winnable weekend — at 11-24 Toronto Friday, home against 12-25 Detroit Saturday — with real chance to push into upper half of the Western Conference playoff standings.
Man of the Match: Coming off his first All-Star nod, Marc Gasol played the kind of tough, skilled all-around game that makes him arguably the league’s second-best center.
