In a match between two of the strongest teams in the league, the Mavericks defeated the Grizzlies for the second time in 10 days. At the final buzzer, the Mavericks won 104-91 led by Luka Doncic, who overtook opposing superstar point guard Ja Morant.
Going into this game, Memphis have won 13 of their previous 15 games while Dallas won 10 of their last 12.
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The Slovenian finished with 37 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals while Morant scored 35 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists. This match was the 17th time that Doncic, who had 41 triple-doubles in his fourth season of his career, miss a triple by one recovery or one support.
The duo showed, but in the end, the home defense had the final say when they held the Grizzlies with only 91 points.
This is the eighth time in January and the 10th in their last 14 games that the Dallas defense, the owner of league’s best defensive ratings in January, held the opponent under 100 points.
Dallas’ defensive tally for January (98.8) was 5.7 points better than any other team.
– Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) January 24, 2022
In this competition, they held the visitors to 37.4% when shooting from the field and only 4 3-pointers with 16.7% efficiency. Those numbers are a huge contrast to the Grizzlies’ shooting numbers 15 matches passed – 46.7 percent magnetic field and 32.8 percent on 3 pointers.
“Our shots come and go… But our defense, it’s just effort,” Dallas wing Dorian Finney-Smith said after the game. That’s what I call it, want-have. Either you feel like doing it or you don’t. I feel like we’ve been up to that challenge. ”
Finney-Smith nailed it. The Mavericks won the last game against their defence. Despite having offense ranked 23rd in January, they have second best net ranking in the league.
In January, the opponent’s numbers for the Mavericks were the best in the league – allowing 95.6 points, a scoring performance of 42.4% and 27.3 percent 3-point shooting efficiency.
With this win, the Mavericks have recovered from Friday’s loss to the Phoenix Suns but they have a tough test coming up. After a day off, they headed to San Francisco to face the Golden State Warriors, whose team they held to their lowest 82 points of the previous season on January 5.
On the other hand, the Grizzlies continued their journey to San Antonio because of a packed schedule ahead. Of their upcoming 10 games, including against Spurs, Memphis plays eight.
