Santi Aldama had 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists and Cam Spencer came off the bench to add 17 points and five assists as the visiting Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Dallas Mavericks 102-96 Saturday night to win back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Zach Edey contributed his first double-double of the season with 12 points and 15 rebounds and Vince Williams Jr., forced into a point guard role because of multiple Memphis injuries at the position, added 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
Klay Thompson scored a season-high 22 points to lead the Mavericks and Brandon Williams added 18. P.J. Washington contributed 15 points and eight boards.
With the game knotted at 96-all, Aldama converted a Spencer feed for a layup with 58 seconds remaining. Edey would reject a shot by Dallas’ big man Daniel Gafford and Cedric Coward made one of two free throws to extend the lead to 99-96 with 27.6 seconds left.
Thompson went for the game-tying trey with 20.3 seconds to play, but was off the mark. Again, Coward converted 1 of 2 from the line, but Edey snared the offensive rebounds and Vince Williams Jr. sealed the win for Memphis with a pair of free throws with seven ticks left.
The Grizzlies held an opponent to fewer than 100 points for the second straight game and outrebounded Dallas, 61-41.
The Grizzlies played their second consecutive game without stars Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., who sat out because of injuries. The team announced before the game that reserve point guard Ty Jerome, who injured his right calf in an Oct. 17 preseason game at Miami, will be out for six to nine more weeks.
Memphis had snapped a five-game losing streak with a lopsided victory at home Thursday over the Sacramento Kings. The Grizzlies attempted to pull away against the Mavericks Friday by going ahead by nine points (67-58) late in the third quarter following a driving layup from Spencer.
But Dallas responded and Thompson’s 3-point make at the end of the quarter trimmed the Memphis advantage to 76-73 entering the fourth.
Neither team shot particularly well in the opening half as the Mavericks made 40.5% of their field goal attempts and the Grizzlies made 36.0%. Memphis was 2-of-15 from long range in the first half. For the Mavericks, Thompson had 14 points at halftime, including four 3-pointers in 11:29 of playing time.
Memphis reserve big man Jock Landale was injured in the first half and did play in the second half.
