Tag: oj-mayo

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Grizzlies 92, Mavericks 82 — Tony Allen Shuts Down O.J. Mayo, Griz Sweep Homestand

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Marc Gasol sealed the game with two big offensive rebounds.

The Lead: On the night of O.J. Mayo’s return to Memphis the script didn’t change. The Grizzlies continued to terrorize on defense, play erratically on offense, and win.

Tony Allen cut off O.J. Mayo’s water, holding the Mavs leading scorer to 10 points on 3-11 shooting (with one of those points coming in the few seconds when Mayo was on the court by Allen wasn’t), and the Mavs weren’t able to make up the lost scoring, especially with 6-21 three-point shooting and 24 turnovers.

Overall, in this 3-0 homestand, the Grizzlies have held opponents to 77.7 points per game.

The Mavericks never led, but they did threaten, cutting an 11-point second quarter Grizzlies lead to only one at halftime when an isolation-happy Grizzlies offense managed only two points in the final three minutes of the half. The Mavs later cut a 17-point Grizzlies lead in the late third quarter to only three with a 21-7 run.

At that point, clinging to a one-possession lead, the Grizzlies brought all five starters back and sealed the game with four of their 17 offensive rebounds and 8 of their 22 second-chance points. The first two possessions out of the timeout — a Tony Allen tap rebound of a missed Mike Conley jumper that Rudy Gay turned into a hoop-and-harm short banker and a classic Zach Randolph and-one putback off a missed Rudy Gay three — pushed the lead back to nine. Later with the lead 88-82 and under two minutes to play, Marc Gasol grabbed consecutive offensive rebounds and hit a 22-footer in one back-breaking 47-second possession.

Man of the Match: Tony Allen has been doing a number on opposing scoring guards all season, but this was a showcase performance. He was matched up with Mayo for all but about 30 seconds of Mayo’s 35:21. Mayo only had one made field-goal through three quarters and finished with 10 points on 3-11 shooting. The mere 11 field-goal attempts in more than 35 minutes while the Mavericks offense was otherwise struggling is maybe the most impressive thing of all. Allen allowed Mayo no space. There were stretches on the floor where the Mavs seemed to almost give up on getting Mayo the ball.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Game 24 Preview: Grizzlies vs. Mavericks

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

O.J. Mayo returns to Memphis tonight.

The Dallas Mavericks have lost four of five and come into Memphis on a second night of a back-to-back following a 110-95 home loss to the Heat on Thursday night.

Three things on my mind about tonight’s game:

1. The Return of O.J. Mayo: The first appearance by Mayo at FedExForum in a different uniform is a storyline that threatens to obscure the rest of the game. Mayo’s played at a borderline All-Star level for the Mavericks — leading his new team with 20.2 points per game and leading the NBA with 50% three-point shooting — this season, becoming the latest in a now disturbingly long screen of recent, young ex-Grizzlies to depart the team and play better, following Kyle Lowry, DeMarre Carroll, and Greivis Vasquez and joining Jeremy Pargo, who’s also demanding entry in that club this season.

A litany of things went wrong with Mayo in Memphis: Getting cut from Team USA in favor of both teammate Rudy Gay and positional rival Eric Gordon. The move to the bench. (Which made sense based on the roster, but with which Mayo, despite saying the right things, never seemed really comfortable.) The fight with Tony Allen. The suspension. The oft-stated desire to play point guard, which was followed with a dismissive reaction from his coach and an utter failure to play the position when opportunities nonetheless presented themselves. A shifting pecking order based on performance, usage, and order of impending free agency that made it clear that a big contract extension from the Grizzlies would never be forthcoming.

All of this seemed to create a situation where a one-time presumed star morphed into an unhappy if generally professional-about-it role player. Even if the financial picture made retaining Mayo unlikely (and he certainly would never have returned to Memphis for the money Dallas paid), clearly the Grizzlies witnessed a major asset decline in value precipitously

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Sports Sports Feature

No Love; Hold the Mayo: Are the Grizzlies Better Off After Draft Day?

Now that the rush and weariness of draft day has passed, time to pick through the aftermath and look ahead. Here’s my mammoth breakdown of where things stand as the Grizzlies embark on the off-season:

Does this trade make the Grizzlies better in the short term?
Maybe not. The Grizzlies lose the only solid veteran on the roster in Mike Miller and the trade leaves the roster out of balance and potentially lacking a lot of important qualities that adding Kevin Love would have provided — toughness, rebounding, a great pick-and-roll/pick-and-pop partner for Mike Conley, someone to start the break, etc. …

Read the rest of Chris Herrington’s latest take on Grizzlies’ Draft Day at Beyond the Arc.

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Sports Sports Feature

Griz Draft Love, Then Trade Him for Mayo

I learned from a Grizzlies source tonight that a deal is in the works that would send the rights to Kevin Love to Minnesota along with Mike Miller, Jason Collins, and Brian Cardinal in return for the rights to O.J. Mayo, Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker, and Greg Buckner …

The Flyer‘s Chris Herrington was all over last night’s NBA draft action on his Beyond the Arc Grizblog. Read it here, and check back later today for more.