Whew, that wasn’t very fun.

After pulling off an upset over the playoff-bound Indiana Pacers on Wednesday and getting two days at home before their next game, the Mavericks managed to come out flat and get their behinds handed to them at home against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night, 111-81.

Since the news of Harrison Barnes being traded to the Sacramento Kings leaked during the third quarter of their February 6th win over the Charlotte Hornets, Dallas has lost seven out of nine games to fall out to 27-35 this season. With a three-game road trip coming up this week, things are only going to get tougher for the free-falling Mavericks.

Back to Saturday night, there was a point early on in the game where things looked somewhat promising.  Dallas led by 2 on several occasions and had an 11-9 lead at one point and then proceeded to allow Memphis to go on a 21-6 run that turned the game into a 13 point lead for the Grizzlies they would never relinquish.

For the Mavericks. the biggest culprit of their downfall tonight was this: they shot 7/40 from beyond the arc.  They might have shot a better percentage on half-court heaves.  They might have shot a better percentage with their eyes closed.  They might have shot a better percentage doing the Michael Scott “catch you on the flippity flip” shot.

Shoehorned that reference of The Office, but sometimes that’s needed to liven up a recap of a thirty point loss.

To expand upon that 7/40 from deep, here are what some notable Mavericks shot from three:

Tim Hardaway Jr. 2/7
Dirk Nowitzki 1/6
Luka Doncic 1/8
Jalen Brunson 0/5

That’s four-fifths of tonight’s starting lineup shooting a combined 4/26 on three’s.  You’re not going to win a game like that.

Bonus riffs
For some reason, Mavericks fans in the arena tonight found it necessary to boo Grizzlies forward Chandler Parsons when he entered the game and every time he touched the ball. Really?  The same treatment Dwyane Wade got two weeks ago?  Are Parsons and Wade really equal in the eyes of Mavs fans? Look, he wasn’t that bad in his two years here and guess what?  The Mavericks weren’t the ones who signed him to a four year, $94 million contract!  Give the guy a break.  He was liked by the important people in the organization. He had some injuries get in the way of him being a dependable player and the Mavericks wisely spent their money elsewhere… on Harrison Barnes! Another guy fans loved to hate recently.  Parsons had five points, two rebounds and two assists in 15 minutes of play.

Joakim Noah is making his way back into the NBA nicely.  The lightning rod big scored 12 points and pulled down 8 rebounds in 17 minutes against the light Mavericks front line. The starting big for Memphis, Jonas Valanciunas, took big-time advantage of being matched up with Dirk Nowitzki in the paint as he notched a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Before the Mavericks “erupted” for eight points in the final two minutes of the 4th to get them to 81 points for the game, they scored just six points in the first ten minutes of the final frame.  Yes, really.  They entered the 4th with 67 points and had just 73 points when PA announcer Sean Heath gave his patented “twooooo MINUTES” notification to the crowd.  Luckily the Mavs offense kicked it up a notch so they could cross the 80 point mark.

Dallas flies out to the northeast Sunday morning and will face the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center on Monday at 6:30 PM.