After a tough 93-92 loss to the New Jersey Nets on Tuesday night, the Dallas Mavericks have to turn right around and play a young and feisty Memphis Grizzlies team in the FedEx Forum on Wednesday.
Memphis, despite losing Zach Randolph and Darrell Arthur to injury for most of the season, has hung tough in the Western Conference playoff race, sitting at No. 7 with a 19-15 record and a +1.3 point differential.
Marc Gasol has stepped up in the absence of their power forwards, making his first career All-Star Game while averaging 15.0 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists on 49.3% shooting. Dallas will need a big game from Brendan Haywood defensively after their veteran center let Nets big man Brook Lopez roast him to the tune of 38 points on Tuesday.
On the other side of the ball, the Grizzlies feature Tony Allen, one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, but he may not be as effective against Dallas, who runs most of their offense through Dirk in the low-post.
Without Randolph or Arthur, Memphis doesn't have much of a match-up for the 11-time All-Star, as they've been scraping by with a combination of Marreese Speights and Dante Cunningham at the 4.
They are coming off an impressive 89-76 home victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday.
The Mavericks are not expected to have Lamar Odom in the line-up again, which will put a lot of pressure on Jason Terry and Rodrigue Beaubois to create offense off the bench and match the production of Grizzlies G OJ Mayo.
The 7:00 PM game will be broadcast regionally on Fox Sports Southwest.
Head over to Mavs Moneyball for all the latest on Dallas while Straight Outta Vancouver has you covered for everything Memphis related.