A wise man of Memphis — Stax Records songwriter/soul man William Bell — once sang, “You don’t miss your water til your well runs dry.”

When the Grizzlies beat the Dallas Mavericks, 120-106, in a play-in elimination game Friday night, it had been nearly two years since the team’s last postseason game at FedExForum, and maybe Memphis needed a reminder. 

A reminder of what that sounds like, with native son Kameron Whalum offering a classy-cool solo trombone national anthem. With Desmond Bane roaring to the fans after hitting a second-quarter 3-pointer to put the Grizzlies up 23 and the fans roaring back. With the swaggering, menacing opening notes of “Whoop That Trick” setting off a fourth-quarter chant. 

Grizzlies lead Mavs wire to wire, advance to playoffs

What that looks like, with yellow “For the M” Growl Towels waving and Ja Morant turning to the Grizzlies bench after hitting a step-back 3 and playfully putting his hands over his ears. With Super Grizz unfurling a banner from high atop a center-court ladder while those towels are, as is the local fourth-quarter custom, held up in defiance. 

Maybe most of all what that feels like, with the warmth of pregame pyrotechnics. With the ‘we’re off’ whoosh of an opening sequence in which Morant picked off a pass and the ball pinged to the opposite end of the floor for a Jaren Jackson Jr. corner 3. With the could-it-be-New-Madrid tremor that shook the building when Morant exploded off the floor for a Statue of Liberty-style follow dunk.

It had been nearly two years — two mostly hard years with a mostly too-young team. Whatever comes next, and, well, we have an idea, maybe everyone invested in the enterprise needed this. 

Maybe they needed to see the “Core Three” — as interim head coach Tuomas Iisalo called them, accurately, the day before — all play well at the same time in a postseason win. 

Dallas star Anthony Davis, who poured in 40 points on 29 field-goal attempts, was terrific. 

The Grizzlies had three of the game’s four best players. 

Morant was a game-time decision after suffering a bad ankle sprain just a few days before in the team’s play-in loss against the Golden State Warriors. He was limping badly at practice the day before. 

The Mavericks put a bigger but slower lineup on the floor and Morant did not hesitate to attack it off the dribble — or in the air. He only limped on his way to the free-throw line.

His 22 points were nice. His nine assists with only two turnovers was perhaps more indicative of the galvanizing effect he had on his team. 

Bane looked every bit the three-level scorer with benefits that he’s become. Those benefits are an extra dose of playmaking, his 22 points on only 15 shots coming with nine assists of his own.

Box score: Grizzlies 120, Mavericks 106

Jackson spaced the floor (4 of 5 on 3-pointers) while Morant and Bane created and then took his own turn to cook in the second half, resulting in 22 points.

And maybe there’s a hard-to-miss rookie who, in the very near future, can bring the concept of the ‘Core Four’ back to the building.

Zach Edey’s 15-point and 11-rebound double-double included a play in the second half in which he punched the ball through the rim with one-hand power off a Bane feed, a play he might have tried to lay in softly a couple of months ago.

Headed back down the floor, Jackson gave his rookie an aggressive shove of appreciation, standing in for fans who would have liked to rush the floor to do the same.

Edey got a technical foul arguing a bad call. When the call was overturned on replay and the Mavericks’ Klay Thompson missed the technical free-throw, Edey capped the moment with a big ‘ball don’t lie’ nod. The kid’s got swagger to match his stature. He’s big and bad and likes it that way. 

“Whatever comes next” is now a full playoff series with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and they pretty much never stop coming. 

That matchup will manifest in an instant. It may already be happening: Game 1 will tip off at noon on Sunday, in OKC. 

But take a moment — because that’s all you get — to soak this one in.

Yeah, the Mavericks aren’t world-beaters, though they’d been 7-3 with Davis in the lineup before Friday night. But the game was a reminder of what this Grizzlies team not only could be but very much should be: Morant and Bane and Jackson all playing well and together to win games that matter, Edey creeping up to complete a core, better support hopefully on the way. 

As for the uphill playoff series the Grizzlies earned Friday: There’s some deja-vu to this quick turnaround, even if no one still in uniform will feel it. 

Herrington: Grizzlies, Mavs meet in a game neither expected to be playing

Fourteen years ago, on a late Friday night in late April, the Grizzlies won a postseason game to earn a series against a higher-seeded Thunder team. The Friday game tipped off at 8 p.m. They faced the Thunder at noon on Sunday, starting one game, in a different city, only 40 hours after starting the first. 

What happened? The Big Trains from Memphis rumbled, with Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol leading the Grizzlies to an upset Game 1 victory. 

This time, with Friday’s 8:30 p.m. tip flowing into a noon Sunday OKC start, the Grizzlies have lost half an hour on the exchange. 

They also carry a more injury-riddled and scuffling team onto the court against what seems to be an even better OKC team this time around. 

The Thunder beat up everyone this season, most definitely including the Grizzlies. If you want to talk yourself into an upset … well, you can try. 

The Grizzlies never gave the Thunder their best in four double-digit regular-season losses. Their best, at this stage, might not be good enough.

Morant missed two of those regular-season matchups. Edey missed one and played light minutes in the other three. The Grizzlies will try to make Edey a more major factor this time, and go down swinging if they can’t. 

And that’s probably what will happen. 

But at least they’ll get some swings in, a chance to get a better feel for themselves and to test drive a potential here-to-stay head coach in a playoff context. 

And the much-missed sights, sounds and sensations of having postseason hoops back in Memphis? We’ll now get to drink deep from that well at least a couple more times this spring.