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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Nets came into Saturday with every advantage. And they flushed them all with an embarrassing 129-110 non-effort against the Grizzlies before 15,103 at FedExForum. 

The Nets were the fresher, more rested team. They were coming off a huge win and a solid practice, while Memphis was coming off a back-to-back. And while they were missing Michael Porter Jr., the Grizzlies were without Ty Jerome, one of the biggest breakout stories in basketball. 

And the Nets never competed. Not for a moment. 

“It’s frustrating they played harder than us,” admitted Jordi Fernández. 

They were down by 18 in a first quarter that saw them give up 9-for-11 shooting from deep. They fell behind by as much as 26. 

And when it was done, they knew they’d turned in a stinker. 

“We cut it to seven at some point and you should’ve been in the game, but we’re not mature enough,” said a frustrated Fernández. “We played against a team that played on the second [night] of a back-to-back with the same travel that we had and they played the right way, played really hard. We’re not there yet.” 

Sitting on the bench as a late scratch for personal reasons, Porter saw his Nets stumble badly right out of the gate, already trailing 35-17 with 2:47 left in the first quarter after a Cam Spencer 3-pointer. 

After a sloppy turnover by Egor Dëmin, the Nets called a timeout. The young guard got chastised by Fernández and spoken to by Julius Randle. 

“I was just trying to tell, it’s on us that we had bad organization getting the ball in,” Randle said. “But in those moments, instead of turning the ball over and having a live turnover, just take the five-second [violation] so we can just get back and get our defense set. So, on us. Just trying not to compound it.” 

“Yeah, they’ve got to grow fast,” Fernández said of young guards Dëmin, Nolan Traore and Mikel Brown Jr. “Being 20 is not an excuse. … I’m frustrated or I get mad because I know they’re very good and they’re better than this. And when I just don’t see a connected group is when it hurts because we make those pushes and cut it to 10, cut it to seven. It’s just frustrating.” 

The Nets had clawed to within 85-77 on Randle’s 3 with 5:12 left in the third quarter, but they got no closer. 

A Randle turnover killed the brittle Brooklyn momentum, and it quickly swung back the other way. The Nets coughed up a 16-1 run, with a Taylor Hendricks dunk putting them in a 101-78 hole with 40 seconds left in the third. 

The Nets fell behind by 26 after a Javon Small 3-pointer with 7:08 to play. 

“We weren’t committed as well on defense, and they played harder than us. That was really it,” Day’Ron Sharpe said. “I just felt like we weren’t connected, weren’t trusting one another, and we’ve just got to get better at that and we got to keep focused on just staying consistent in our energy.” 

Randle finished with 22 points but was a minus-18. Sharpe had 16 points and 11 boards. But the Nets allowed 52.9 percent shooting and 42.9 percent from deep. 

Memphis’ Cedric Coward had a game-high 23 points, while Hendricks added 22 for a Grizzlies team that didn’t even have Jerome. 

It was a galling way to end the four-game road swing. 

“It was things that we can control,” Randle said. “But we didn’t get enough stops. They made like nine 3s in the first quarter. It’s tough when a team gets it going that early. We didn’t punch first. We didn’t come out with a sense of urgency. And they took advantage of that. 

“Frustrating because we want to see our habits translate, and they didn’t [Saturday]. So we’ve got to be better.” 

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The name of the game in the NBA is adjustments. 

It’s usually about adjusting to other teams. But for the Nets — and a host of others around the league over the past two days — it was adjusting their travel. 

The Nets — who were en route to play the Grizzlies, an eventual 129-110 loss — got thrown into travel chaos Friday night and Saturday morning, just like the rest of the country. The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to ground every flight nationwide for hours Friday left travelers scrambling, and the Nets were among them. 

“Yeah, I mean, obviously it was something that we couldn’t control,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández said. “And to be honest with you, it was not that bad. We had good rest and got here [Saturday] morning and did our walkthrough, and probably [would have] gone to the gym, but we were not able to. And I think we feel good and ready to go.” 

The ground stop lasted over four hours before the FAA finally let airplanes take off Friday night. The Nets were one of five NBA teams that had been slated to fly that day for games Saturday. 

Brooklyn had been coming off a dominant 142-111 victory over the Pelicans on Wednesday night at Smoothie King Arena. They had stayed in New Orleans and practiced in the city Friday morning before heading to the airport to charter to Memphis. 

The Nets had just boarded their team plane in New Orleans, but had their flight halted in place. They eventually had to deboard the plane, scramble and find a hotel and stay overnight in New Orleans. 

Eventually, the Nets flew out at about 9 a.m. Saturday and arrived around 11 a.m., though the times blurred to Fernández. 

“Every day feels the same day and I just know the team that I play against in the city that I’m in,” Fernández laughed. “I don’t know about time, sorry.” 

The Nets had initially planned to have a morning shootaround in Memphis. But arriving that morning instead of the afternoon prior, their plans got changed. 

They faced the Grizzlies later that night at FedExForum. 

“Yeah, I mean, some of the guys we would have done some sort of shooting in the morning. It’s been the routine that they’ve had so far, whether it’s in a team setting or shooting times and walk-through and stuff like that. But we were not able to do it because of the time that we got here,” Fernández said. “So, like I said, it’s not ideal. We got here, everybody’s safe. It’s the most important thing.” 

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Nets play-by-play voice Chris Carrino and color analyst Tim Capstraw — Brooklyn’s radio announcers for WFAN — were flying commercial and also got caught by the travel chaos. With direct transit from New Orleans to Memphis already all but impossible, the duo had flown to Houston and planned to catch a connecting flight but got stranded in Texas. They stayed in the airport and flew into Memphis on a 7:20 a.m. flight. 

Ironically, the Grizzlies had also been in New Orleans, and beat the Pelicans on Friday night. 

Memphis had to fly home Saturday morning as well. 

“Before the New Orleans game you could see a lot of chatter courtside and in the locker room about what was going to happen,” Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo said. 

“We departed at maybe 11:30 when our original time was about 10 o’clock … instead of doing a morning shootaround on back-to-backs, a lot of times what teams do is a jog through here at the area, so you don’t come back twice.” 

The ground stop played havoc with travel. 

The Detroit Pistons had already flown to Miami, with the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies all having played Friday night and been expected to fly afterward, according to ESPN. 

Friday saw a total of 9,132 cancellations and 7,030 delays. Saturday saw thousands more, with the numbers still growing. 

Officials cited “extraordinary circumstances” caused by communications issues at regional air traffic control centers for the stoppage. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pointed to “old switches, old routers.” 

The Nets had a jumbo lineup again Saturday, but not their leading scorer. 

Michael Porter Jr. was out Saturday after being a late scratch due to personal reasons. But the backcourt was healthy, with Nolan Traore and Mikel Brown Jr. both returning after having missed the win in New Orleans. 

The Nets went with Egor Dëmin, Danny Wolf, Noah Clowney, Julius Randle and Day’Ron Sharpe, every starter at least 6-foot-9, as they had been against the Pelicans. The Nets are the first team to do so since the Lakers on April 21, 1990.

The Dallas Mavericks (7-6) fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers (7-7), 127-117 in a Saturday night matchup on the road. The matchup followed Dallas’ 133-94 beatdown loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night. The Mavericks needed a bounce-back performance after Thursday night’s blunder, and failed to take advantage of a second-string Cavaliers team.

Max Christie, Sergio de Larrea, Dereck Lively, and Tarik Biberovic were out for the Mavericks. Cleveland was without Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Peyton Watson, Evan Mobley, Jarret Allen, and Sam Merrill. The Cavaliers sat all their top players after being unable to leave Miami until 9 a.m. due to a nationwide FAA grounding, following their 133-121 loss to the Heat. The nationwide grounding led to a call from Mitchell to cancel the game.

Kyrie Irving led the Mavericks with 34 points, six rebounds, and five assists, with 28 of those points coming in the second half. Tyrese Proctor contributed 24 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, his first career triple-double, for the shorthanded Cavaliers.

The Mavericks struggled to defend the three early on, allowing Cleveland to make six threes in the first quarter, taking 58% of their shots from behind the arc. The Cavaliers, though shorthanded, had a hot hand early, allowing them to compete with the Mavericks in the first period. Caleb Martin was a bright spot for the Mavericks in this period, contributing nine first-quarter points as he continues to string together solid contributions in Dallas. Though the Mavericks couldn’t stop Meleek Thomas’s three-point shot early in the game, they walked into the second period at a 33-33 stalemate.

The Mavericks struggled offensively in the second period, letting their offensive mishaps affect how they defended the Cavaliers on the other end. The Cavaliers’ early hot hand from behind the arc faded away in the second quarter, but they were able to go inside, as the Mavericks continued to struggle to defend them. The Mavericks needed more from Cooper Flagg in this quarter, who went 1-of-6 from the field as the Cavaliers’ lead grew behind their 28-9 run in the quarter. Dallas walked into the intermission after giving up 38 points in the period, down 71-53, with a desperate need to punch back in the second half.

Dallas entered the second half uninspired to turn around its double-digit deficit, letting the lead swell to over twenty points. Dallas attempted to make a run midway through the third period, cutting the lead to 14, but continued to be unable to defend Cleveland to close the lead in any meaningful way. After a string of defensive stops, the Mavericks closed the gap with the Cavaliers, cutting the lead to 10. Irving provided a necessary 20 points in the third quarter when the Mavericks couldn’t find a bucket. Even then, the Mavericks entered the fourth quarter with a 14-point deficit to dig themselves out of. The Mavericks’ struggles seeped into the fourth quarter, despite everything Irving tried to do for Dallas. The Mavericks were unable to string together enough stops to fight back, falling 127-117.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday night’s loss.

Offensive woes on the road

The Mavericks’ offensive struggles continued on the road, shooting 39-of-94 from the field in the loss to Cleveland. Dallas needed someone to step up alongside Irving, but failed to take advantage of a less-talented group. This team needs more from guys like PJ Washington and Naji Marshall, who both shot poorly from the field in the loss to the Cavaliers. Off-nights from Flagg mean that someone else needs to answer the call, and the Mavericks failed to find someone to do so against Cleveland.

Cooper Flagg’s struggles

Cooper Flagg struggled in Saturday night’s matchup with the Cavaliers, finishing with 18 points on 6-of-19 from the field. He was unable to find his shot tonight, and it felt like he was trying to force himself out of his slump by trying to draw whistles that he didn’t get. He shot 0-of-6 from behind the arc tonight, though the Mavericks shot poorly from three as a whole. The Mavericks need more from Flagg, especially when facing a team missing its best players, because Irving can’t be left to do it on his own. Flagg’s youth showed tonight, and the Mavericks will need him to return to his All-Star-caliber self.

Kyrie Irving’s third quarter

Kyrie Irving’s 20-point third quarter gave the Mavericks a glimmer of temporary hope, with the Mavericks closing the Cavaliers’ lead to 10. He was able to find his shot in this quarter, giving the Mavericks the push they needed to try to close the gap on the Cavaliers. Irving finished with 34 points, with the Mavericks needing every last one. Irving has played like an All-Star since returning from his ACL tear, and tonight was another impressive showing, coming when Dallas needed it the most. The Mavericks were unable to find anyone to step up to the plate alongside Irving and play with some shame against the Cleveland B-team.

Up next

The Mavericks are back in action Sunday, as they travel to Boston to face the Celtics at the TD Garden. Catch the tail end of the Mavericks back-to-back at 5 p.m. CT on KFAA-TV and MavsTV.

It was just a few months ago that you could’ve turned a Knicks game off and celebrated within the last five minutes if it was a one-possession game: that’s how automatic they were in the clutch.

Led by the former Clutch Player of the Year and an impeccable supporting cast, it seemed like every time they found themselves in a late and close situation, it was automatic after those two CJ McCollum games. Even going back further than that, this team’s ability to dig deep when they need it most has been the defining characteristic of the Jalen Brunson era.

With an identical roster back in 2026-27, you’d expect it’d be the same… except it’s not.

In the Knicks’ 6-6 start, they’ve played seven clutch games. They’ve lost six of them.

Not all clutch games are created equal, but all of these games were winnable. Even last night’s loss against Indiana, which I was saying felt like a “fake clutch game,” as the Knicks got a few buckets late to make it look close, they somehow managed to have the ball with a chance to send it to overtime at the buzzer.

One way or another, the Knicks have failed to win these games. The lone win, the high-scoring thriller in Chicago, was the only game where it’s felt like last season’s Knicks that found a way.

Overall, in their 1-6 record in clutch games, the Knicks have a minus-17.4 net rating, ranking 22nd in the NBA. They don’t do anything truly bad in these games, but they do nothing well.

Their turnover rate is league average, as is their assist rate. Their rebounding goes from dominant to so-so, but the real culprit is the putrid 50.7 TS%, which ranks 23rd. That’s the catalyst behind an offense that hasn’t worked in these situations.

If you exclude the Chicago game, they have a minus-40 net rating with an 82.9 offensive rating and an even rougher 44.4 TS%. All six of those games have come against the type of teams they’ve excelled against in postseason settings, but it just hasn’t happened so far.

Going game-by-game, it’s just a mess of missed opportunities.

In the season opener against Philly, the Knicks trailed by two with under three minutes to go. After giving up a dunk to VJ Edgecombe, OG Anunoby committed a back-breaking turnover in the open court that allowed Tyrese Maxey to score an easy layup. The Knicks never got closer.

The Boston game that followed it felt like a fake comeback at times, but the team got within one with 1:41 to go. While the Celtics never pulled away from there, Jayson Tatum never gave them a chance to come back with tough shot after tough shot.

The inability to get a stop, coupled with a bad moving screen by Karl-Anthony Towns in a crucial spot down three with 1:11 left doomed them to an 0-2 start.

Against Orlando, the game was tied at 91 at the five-minute mark, but the Knicks played so poorly over the next four minutes that they gave themselves no chance. On their next eight possessions, the Knicks went 0-for-3 from the field, 2-for-6 from the line, and had three turnovers.

In the NBA Cup game in Philadelphia, a stepback three from Brunson gave them a 90-89 lead with 1:32 left, but things would unravel after that. A clutch LeBron fadeaway and a triple from Edgecombe on the next two possessions hurt, but so did allowing a brutal offensive rebound after getting a stop with 12 seconds left.

Their biggest strength, rebounding, failed them.

Against Cleveland on Wednesday, it was tied entering clutch time and a one-point game with 3:26 left, but a peculiar decision to continue to blitz Donovan Mitchell at halfcourt allowed the Cavs to score on essentially every trip down.

One sequence that defined this one? Deuce McBride had a fastbreak layup down by five with 35 seconds to go, got stuffed, and Peyton Watson hit Jarrett Allen on an outlet for an and-1 to ice the game.

Then, last night in Indiana, the undermanned Pacers did everything they could to throw the game away, giving the Knicks the ball down by two with 2.8 to go. They drew up a post touch for Towns, but it didn’t go.

I don’t hate the idea, but I really wish they used Towns’ newfound playmaking ability to their advantage by trying to free up a shooter on the right wing. If I have any criticism of this team’s late-game offense for years now, it’s too much isolation. There was enough time for a pass to at least be an option.

The team is shooting 38.9% in the clutch, a continuation of what’s been annoyingly persistent struggles with efficiency. They haven’t shot enough free throws to make conclusions there, but the regression we’ve seen from Towns and Brunson at the line has killed them in games where every point counts.

All told, this is something you expect to eventually reverse itself, but we’re getting to the point in the season where samples are getting bigger and bigger.

At some point, they have to start executing in general and consistently play as a cohesive unit for all 48 minutes.

The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Dallas Mavericks 127-117 behind an inspiring effort from their reserves.

The Cavs played on a skeleton crew tonight, with most of their usual rotation sidelined after last night’s delay kept them in Miami longer than expected. Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Peyton Watson, and Jarrett Allen all sat out while Evan Mobley, Sam Merrill, and Nae’Qwan Tomlin were out with respective injuries.

The starting lineup tonight was Tyrese Proctor, Meleek Thomas, Jaylon Tyson, Mario Hezonja, and Thomas Bryant.

The trio of Proctor, Thomas, and Tyson, who have labeled themselves as ‘the pitbulls’, set the tone early by being hyper-aggressive and active on both ends of the floor. They combined for 41 points in the first half, doing a little bit of everything to help build an 18-point lead going into the locker room.

Proctor finished the game with 24 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. It was the strongest game of his career and proof of concept that Proctor is a foundational piece of this team’s future.

Rocket Arena, which began the night feeling scorned by the stars who sat out, gave a hefty round of applause for the young group that showed up tonight.

Bryant and Hezonja deserve credit as well for serving as the veteran leaders of a younger, more inexperienced lineup. Hezonja scored 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting while Bryant added 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting.

Kyrie Irving scored 34 points and was given a warm reception both when he was announced in the Mavericks’ starting lineup and after the Cavs played a video of his iconic Game 7 shot over the Warriors. It was nice to see Irving play basketball back in Cleveland.

The Cavs also saw support from two-way prospect Norchad Omier, who added 13 points and 8 rebounds by hustling around the court all night. It’s performances like this that made a double-digit victory possible despite being short-handed.

Overall, the Cavs’ youth showed that you can accomplish a lot by simply playing hard. The cohesion that was shown by this group tonight should be kept in mind moving forward.

Cleveland is back home on Monday against the Chicago Bulls.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves will not play Sunday after suffering an injury on Nov. 11.

Reaves has a bruised heel and is considered day-to-day, coach JJ Redick said. Reaves and the Lakers’ medical staff opted against having imaging done on the injury.

Reaves is listed as "out" for Sunday's game on the NBA's injury reports released on Saturday, Nov. 14. It will be just the second game that he will have missed this season. He did not play in the Lakers’ 124-114 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 9 due to illness.

The initial injury diagnosis had left the door open for Reaves to potentially play against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, Nov. 15. But, he will not be suiting up.

How did Austin Reaves get hurt?

He suffered the injury in an awkward landing on his left heel after missing a transition dunk attempt in the third quarter Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Reaves and the Lakers had several days off to recover between games, but it apparently wasn't enough for the guard to be ready.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Austin Reaves playing Sunday? Injury status for Lakers-Suns