The Memphis Grizzlies were prepared to deal O.J. Mayo to the Indiana Pacers at the trade deadline, but the call to the league office was late by three minutes.

“I asked a couple of guys in the locker room, ‘How am I supposed to feel now?’ ’’ he said. “So now I’m supposed to come out here the next day and go to work? I don’t know. I’m like anybody else. How would you feel?

Mayo, who was taken third in the 2008 draft and averaged 18.5 points per game as a rookie, is in the unenviable position of playing for a team that seemingly doesn’t want him.

Then Grizzlies star swingman Rudy Gay suffered a separated shoulder that will cost him the rest of the season. And now Memphis is depending on Mayo for off-the-bench scoring to make a run at the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Grizzlies made a significant step toward that goal with a win at Boston Wednesday in which Mayo tallied 11 points in 19 minutes.