Shawn Marion scored a season-high 20 points as the Dallas Mavericks thrashed the Memphis Grizzlies 104-83 on Saturday night.
''Being aggressive and just picking my shots,'' Marion said. ''I have been really trying to get my teammates going and in the process get myself going.''
For the Mavericks, Marion shot nine out of 13 attempts from the floor, Dirk Nowitzki added 17 points and six rebounds, Chris Kaman scored 14 points and chipped in seven rebounds, while Darren Collison and Elton Brand had 10 points apiece.
Dallas shot really well, as they had 39-of-80 attempts from the field. They managed to lead by 30 points at one point of time in the game and it happened for the first time in the current season.
''It's the kind of game we need,'' The Associated Press quoted Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle as saying. ''We need more of these, but they're hard to come by.''
The Grizzlies entered Saturday's game with a big overtime win against Southwest Division-leading San Antonio, but they looked off-color against Dallas. Memphis starters did not shoot well, as they had only 32 out of 84 attempts from the floor.
''We didn't have maybe one, maybe one-and-a-half starter that could bring it,'' Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. ''Our focus and concentration wasn't there.''
Dallas started off well in the game as they outscored the Grizzlies 25-18 in the first quarter. They scored 29 points in the second quarter and stopped Memphis at 21, to take a 15-point lead in the first half.
The third quarter was not different and the Mavs easily outshined the Grizzlies 34-23, to extend their lead to 26 points.
Nowitzki hit a 3-pointer to extend the Mavericks' lead to 95-65 early in the fourth quarter. But Memphis' defense suddenly woke up in the last quarter and contained the Mavs' offense at 16 points in the fourth quarter and outscored them by adding 21 points, but that was not enough to avoid their defeat by a huge 21 points.
''It felt good to be on the other side of a blowout win,'' Nowitzki said. ''I thought we really from the beginning set a good tone. We gave them nothing easy.''
The Mavs hit 11 three-pointers, whereas the tired Grizzlies had only three shots from the 3-point arc.
''Taking small steps, but that was big against one of the top teams in the league,'' Mayo said. ''They were tired and beat up from a tough game last night and we put it on them.''
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