Mavs blow 16-point second-half lead, lose to Grizzlies, 112-108

MEMPHIS – The Dallas Mavericks appeared well on their way toward flying merrily home while making a clean sweep of this three-game road trip Monday night at FedEx Forum.

Then the fourth quarter happened.

Disaster struck the Mavs at every corner down the stretch as they dropped an unfortunate 112-108 decision to the Memphis Grizzlies. The loss snapped the Mavs’ modest two-game winning streak and squared their record at 36-36 going into Wednesday’s home game against the Golden State Warriors.

Coupled with the Warriors’ 121-108 win in Houston on Monday, the Mavs have slipped to the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference while Golden State (37-36) moved into the No. 6 slot.

Point guard Luka Doncic, meanwhile, missed his fifth straight game while still dealing with a left thigh strain.

This was a game where the Mavs led, 96-80, late in the third quarter and appeared to have matters under control. Yet, instead of putting the hammer down on the Grizzlies from there, the Mavs made just three field goals in 21 attempts and scored only 12 points in the fourth quarter.

“I think it’s a combination (of defense and missed shots),” coach Jason Kidd said. “We had great looks. (Kyrie Irving) goes 0-7 or 0-8. He had great looks. It just didn’t go down.

“Defensively, they got some offensive rebounds we didn’t come up with. We have to be better, but we put ourselves on the road against a very talented team to win. Twelve points in the fourth is not going to help the cause. We’ve got to just be better on the offensive end.”

All of those empty possessions in the fourth quarter by the Mavs were costly – not to mention getting outscored, 22-6, in second-chance points.

“You look at the (50-37 edge Memphis had in the) rebounding,” Kidd said. “I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part until they put in a small group and they just drove the ball, and on the misses we just couldn’t come up with the rebounds. We have to be better at that.

“We just couldn’t score. You’ve got to give them credit, but . . . if we had that opportunity again, we do feel that we’re comfortable that we could have gotten that win if those shots present themselves.”

Even Irving, who has been a model of consistency since joining the Mavs last month, fell victim to the basket seemingly having a lid in the fourth quarter. The NBA leader in fourth-quarter scoring this season, Irving went scoreless in the final quarter while missing all eight of his field goal attempts.

“It was definitely a tough fourth quarter — 12 points,” said Irving, who was 10-of-24 from the field. “We had control of the game for the majority of it, and I think they had 15 second chance points just in the fourth quarter alone. We gave up seven offensive rebounds, so those are very controllable things, but it’s the NBA.

“Sometimes you’re going to make shots and miss shots, and those last seven minutes that I was out there, I felt like I shot some very big makeable ones, but they were just long. We gave ourselves a chance. That’s all I can ask for, and we stayed course. But at the end of the day we’ve got to take care of the controllable details out there, which is rebounding and staying in front of our men, and the majority of the night we did that.”

Irving said he reaggravated his right big toe when Dillon Brooks accidently stepped on him in the second half.

“Unfortunate play,” he said. “I would have felt different up here if I felt Dillon did it on purpose, but he didn’t. It’s just one of those plays where he’s trailing me, and I think his feet got caught up with mine and I twisted my ankle.

“Just bad timing, but the game has to keep going on. For me, I have to be better, just if I’m going to be out there. Even maintaining the pace that I was after getting somewhat injured by Dillon, I just got to maintain the poise.”

Rookie Jaden Hardy was the only Maverick who made a field goal in the fourth quarter. And the last of his three field goals – he was 3-of-5 from the floor in the fourth — came with six minutes remaining.

The rest of the Mavs were a dismal 0-of-16 from the field in the final quarter, while Memphis scored 29 points.

“I think our defense, our set defense, was pretty great,” center Christian Wood said. “I think we just allowed a lot of offensive rebounds, and then our offense got stagnant.

“But the shots that Kyrie got at the rim, we’re going to live with those shots. I feel like we all got good shots. Reggie (Bullock) had a good open look in the corner (for a potential tying three-pointer). It just didn’t go in. We weren’t finishing up plays.”

Irving led the Mavs with 28 points, Wood contributed 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and Hardy tallied 10 of his 20 points in the third quarter when the Mavs – up until that point – took control of the game.

The Grizzlies were paced by Jaren Jackson Jr. (28 points), Santi Aldama (22 points, 14 rebounds), TCU-ex Desmond Bane (17 points, six boards).

In beating the Mavs for the third time in 10 days, the Grizzlies improved their NBA-best home record to 30-5 and their overall record to 44-27.

“When we’re down three, we got some great looks,” Kidd said. “(Irving) got some great looks, Reggie got some great looks. It just didn’t go down for us.”

Jackson put the finishing touches on a 24-7 run by Memphis when he scored inside as the Grizzlies forged ahead, 104-103, with 4:53 remaining in the game. A pair of free throws by Wood got the Mavs back in front, 105-104.

But the Grizzlies went up, 110-105, with just 17.3 seconds left following punishing drives by Bane and Jackson. Meanwhile, everything the Mavs tossed in the direction of the basket didn’t find its intended destination when the game was still hanging in the balance.

Hardy entered the game for the first time late in the opening quarter and made an immediate impact. The rookie from the G League Ignite initially buried a three-pointer to help the Mavs crawl within 30-28 of the Grizzlies at the end of the first quarter.

However, Hardy had to exit for good with five minutes remaining and the  Mavs nursing a 103-102 lead after he stepped on someone’s foot.

“He stepped on someone’s foot when he was backtracking,” Kidd said. “I and the rest of the coaching staff looked at going with some experience once we thought he was hurt.

“That fourth (quarter), he was, I think, the only one who probably did score, but when he was backtracking he stepped on someone’s ankle. So not just to leave him on the offensive end, but he has to participate on a defensive end, too. We felt we just needed someone who was healthy at that time.”

Elsewhere, in less than a minute, the Mavs got a snapshot of what Brooks is all about. First, Brooks drove down the lane and scored. Then on the ensuing trip of the floor, he levied a foul on Irving, who went to the line and knocked down a pair of charity tosses to know the game at 19-19.

From there, early in the second half Brooks got tangled with Dwight Powell and Irving, which sent the Mavs’ guard sprawling to the floor and the referees to the table to review the play. After further review, Powell was charged with his fourth foul.

A short time later, Brooks was charged with a technical foul, and Irving connected on the free threw to pad the Mavs’ lead to 74-67. And not long after that, Brooks inadvertently stepped on Irving’s foot, causing Irving a lot of discomfort.

“I think Dillion is doing a great job with embracing his role,” Kidd said. “He’s found a niche and he’s playing at a very high level. He loves to play defense, he loves to talk, and that’s just who he is. And I think for this team, they love that and they feed off of that. That’s pretty cool.

“And for opponents, sometimes it could be where they get irritated. I think the good ones just continue to keep playing and try to make him work.”

The Mavs kept playing and kept trying to make Brooks and his teammates work on the defensive end of the floor. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep the Grizzlies off the boards and they couldn’t locate the basket in the fourth quarter.

“Things definitely got chippy,” Wood said. “Those guys love to talk. When we went up 16, we should have just stayed poised throughout that and held the lead. Like I said, things happen in basketball.

“We look at it and we try and get better and try and wait for Luka to get back, and hopefully Kyrie’s ankle is OK.”

Twitter: @DwainPrice