Rick Carlisle rips his team after a 129-91 rout by the rampant San Antonio Spurs – NBA Update
The Dallas Mavericks are losing spinelessly and there seems to be nothing that their head coach Rick Carlisle can do about that.
Actually, on a second thought, he can do one thing. He can rip them, and that was exactly what he did after his team put up a shambolic display in a 129-91 blowout on Sunday night.
The Mavs trailed by as many as 46 points on their way to a 38 point loss, and allowed the Spurs 30 shots from the three point land. The Spurs made 20 of those 30, setting a new season high.
After the loss, Carlisle blasted his team for being selfish and for their lack of competitiveness.
“If you look at the stat sheet I think you can find pretty much everything,” Carlisle said. “It was dribble penetration, it was giving up 3s, it was not getting loose balls, it was failure to make any hard, physical plays. So look,
we’re going lace ‘em up early tomorrow morning and go back at it. I’d love to give everybody two days off, but it ain’t happening. It ain’t happening.”
This is the fourth loss in five games which the 12-16 Mavs have suffered. Three of these losses have come against top teams and in the last game against the defending champions Miami Heat, Carlisle side was trailing by as many
as 36 points in third. The troublesome part is that Mavs are slated to face the Oklahoma City Thunder next.
“It’s all disappointing and it’s something we can’t accept,” he told reporters after the game. “I’ve got to work harder at turning these guys into a team. At this point, you know, we don’t look like we’re very close, but we’re
going to keep at it.”
The blowout loss also overshadowed the surprise return of Dirk Nowitzki, who came off the bench in the first quarter and in 20 minutes of game action, managed eight points, six rebounds and a steal. Nowitzki went 3 of 4 from the
floor, but could do little as the Spurs ran riot in the second half.
The Mavs, paced mainly by O.J. Mayo, made a decent start to the season, and as Nowitzki prepares to make a transition back on to the court, they still have a chance to make a playoffs berth. However, they just cannot afford to
be sluggish, especially against genuine contenders. They might be light years away from troubling them just yet, but a fight won’t harm and will also instil in them the belief that they can make a deep run this season.
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