DALLAS — Memphis Grizzlies guards Desmond Bane and Ja Morant stood side by side following the win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center. 

Bane had his jersey off when Morant gave him the assist. He handed his co-star a marker.

And then something special happened. 

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They both smiled. 

Yep! On this night, that was a big deal.

Morant was cheesing ear-to-ear.

He reached out and put his arm around Bane. A backcourt duo that was split up on the floor by devastating injury news one day prior was together in that moment. 

“I found out on the plane yesterday heading here to Dallas,” Bane said. “We were playing cards and stuff. I knew he was going to get imaging, so I decided to just ask how it went. 

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“He broke the news to me. When he first told me, it didn’t really hit me or register with me. It wasn’t until that night that I was preparing for the game and I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to hit up my brother. He’s been through a lot and fought so hard to get back.’ ... My heart is with him.”

The imaging was worse than the team and Morant had hoped. It revealed a torn labrum in Morant’s shoulder that will require surgery and end his season just nine games after he returned from a 25-game suspension.

All of the Grizzlies made it plenty clear:

It. Was. Crushing. 

“I found out when everybody else found out,” Memphis guard Marcus Smart said. “A wise man once told me, before you see a rainbow, it has to storm. 

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“Right now, we are going through a storm.”

Rain, hail, sleet and snow. Insert your MLGW joke here. 

But getting the worst of it is Morant, for whom all of the Grizzlies feel terrible. When posed with questions about the star point guard, you could watch their cheery mood after the victory sink to their stomach. 

“It’s heartbreaking, to say the least. ... It’s tough.” Memphis wing Ziaire Williams said. “Obviously, it’s going to be harder without him.”

Williams has been an entirely different player with Morant on the floor this season than without him.

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But, on this night, the Grizzlies’ first without the star, Williams hit the dagger 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter. It came directly across from the Memphis bench. 

In a poetic moment, when Williams spun around in glee, he saw the outstretched arm of Morant’s father, Tee, which he smacked in celebration. 

Unsurprisingly, Tee is gutted for his son too. 

Like Bane, he received the news via a text, this one in a Team Morant chain made up of Ja’s personal friends, family and trainers. 

“It was like, ‘WTF!’ ” Tee Morant told The Daily Memphian. “But at the same time, it was like, ‘We are going to make it through this joint.’ ”

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That’s all they can do now.

Tee wishes badly he could take away the pain his son is feeling at the moment. 

“As a dad, I just feel bad,” Tee Morant said. “I want to give him my shoulder. I want to give him my labrum. I want to do anything to make sure he’s great. 

“But at the same time, it’s God’s timing. An injury, it happens, it’s not the worst thing in life. There are people in worse situations than he is in. 

“Our theme as a camp will be to circle him and keep his spirits up because I know he is really down in the dumps right now. He hates that he can’t be there for his team. 

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“With everything that has happened to him, which I don’t want to make excuses, but I didn’t agree with everything, this entire season it seemed like it was always bad anyways. 

“So our focus with Team Morant is now making sure he’s going to have this surgery, and making sure he gets back to 100% so he can show the world who the f--- he is, and that is him.”

Tee has been hard on Ja since he was a child. He said this recovery process will be no different.

But with the news so fresh, he said his priority is making sure his son knows he is there for him and feels loved. 

“If he needs an ear, I got two,” Tee said. “If he needs a shoulder, I got two. Everything is about making sure your child is the best that they can be, no matter what avenue they choose to explore.”

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And if he wasn’t clear enough the first time: Tee has little doubt that Ja will be back and better than ever. 

“That boy is a cyborg,” Tee Morant said. “Most people don’t know, but he probably played four or five games with the injury, because this joint doesn’t happen overnight, especially without a physical reaction to make his labrum tear or whatever. 

“But, knowing my son, he’s going to put in the right work and do his due diligence to make sure he comes out to come out 100%. We are going to do our part to make sure he gets back to where he is supposed to be, and that’s the top.”

In the meantime, it will be on Morant’s Grizzlies teammates to hold it down for him. They’re already off to a 2-0 start. 

Given the news they received last night, it would have been easy for Memphis to feel completely overwhelmed Tuesday. Instead, the Grizzlies looked inspired. 

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“It’s tough when you lose your best player. ... But we are a really close group,” Luke Kennard said. “We know who we are, and we are always happy for each other when somebody has a really good game. 

“We are going to stick together and have his back. We are going to push Ja to be great, and he’s going to keep pushing us.”

Morant seems to know what the Grizzlies have, too. He wanted to deliver a message to teammates Tuesday, the morning of the game.

So he stood up and spoke at a team meeting. 

“His message was to keep going,” Smart said. “His message was to leave it all out on the court. We had been holding it down until he came back, and then when he came back, we kept holding it down. 

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“Now that he’s out, he wants us to hold it down again. But he wants us to keep improving and keep growing so that when he does come back, he has some firepower behind him.”

He has some in Jackson, who due to a knee contusion also didn’t play Tuesday night. 

And he certainly has some in Bane, who scored 32 points to pull Memphis to what coach Taylor Jenkins called the most impressive win of the season. 

What did Bane say when he decided he needed to message Ja Morant on Monday night?

“There’s no right thing to say in that moment,” Bane said. “It takes time. But I can show it with my actions and my time. I want to make sure that he feels included and knows we are here for him.”

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Bane did exactly that when he pulled Morant into the huddle of friends and family that were waiting for him courtside in Dallas, where he played his college ball. 

Like Grizzlies fans everywhere, he was happy to see Morant with a smile. 

“That’s my dawg,” Bane said. “Ja is always going to be positive. He’s one of our brothers and we love him to death. He’s such a big part of this thing, whether he is playing or not.”