http://www.dallasbasketball.com/fullColumn.php?id=2951
I’m always loathe to criticize a coach for the results of a game. When players miss shots, commit silly fouls or turnovers, and generally play poorly, it’s usually their own fault when they come up short. All a coach can do is put his players in position to max out their talents in the best way possible and hope for the best.
The Mavs players came up short against the Spurs in Game 3, 94-90.
But Rick Carlisle, this one’s on you.
Not only did Carlisle fail to coach this game in a way that helped his players, his choices directly led to this loss, in a crucial contest that was there for the taking.
The problem? He used his players in such ridiculously long stints in the second half that down the stretch, they had no energy left when it came to crunch time.
The best coaches find a way to juggle the players in and out in a seamless way to get those needed moments for a quick recharge …but Carlisle coached like a rookie who’s too scared to let anyone sit while they are playing well.
A coach has to trust his players – or at least enough of them to keep them fresh and effective. Carlisle did not do so.
And what’s worse, he committed this error for the second game in a row. What should have been a lesson learned Wednesday for next time turned into a wasted opportunity Friday night on the Spurs floor.
Let’s rewind. Game 2 in Dallas saw Carlisle riding the hot hand of Jason Terry. With no one else playing worth a bucket of warm spit and the game slipping away, Carlisle went to JET much earlier than usual in the third quarter, inserting him into the game about six minutes earlier than he usually does.
Nothing wrong with that, of course. Take a swing and hope for the best.
And it helped a lot. JET got hot, the team surged, and what looked like a sure loss began to offer signs of hope. In the third quarter JET went 4-of-6, scored 11, and gradually the Mavs were creeping back into the game. In the first half of the fourth quarter, he was 1-of-2 and his trey cut the Spurs lead down to five. After a Spurs bucket and misses by both teams, it was timeout for the six-minute TV commercial, the AAC was going nuts, and the Mavs had a great chance to come back and win
But what went apparently unnoticed by Carlisle: JET had been in the game for about one-and-a-half quarters without a rest. In other games, he had been playing for that length of time in an entire second half …but in this one, he had six minutes left to play.
Carlisle kept playing him. He rode the hot hand.
And he rode it too long and crapped out.
In hindsight, that timeout would have been the ideal time to rest and recharge JET for a couple minutes so he could be lethal again in the last of the game. Instead they drew up a play for JET, got him a wide open look, and he was short. Dead legs? Probably.
Over that last 6:00, JET was 0-of-4, all open looks, but with several (or all?) off the front rim which usually indicates you've lost your legs and are fatigued ... and in hindsight, putting someone else in at that timeout for a few minutes while JET got some rest might have made a huge difference.
Fast forward to Friday. Obviously Carlisle has noticed, learned, and figured out how to do it differently the next game. Right? Umm … No, sadly not.
In fact, it got so much worse in Game 3 that I thought I could hear the choking sound from Rick’s throat all the way back in Dallas. Yikes.
The second half of Game 3 began playing out similarly to Game 2. Terry got inserted early in the third quarter (for Marion), playing alongside second-half starters Dampier, Dirk, Barea, and Kidd in a three-guard lineup. And it worked. The Mavs started playing well, going on a 21-2 run to turn a deficit into a solid lead, and had the Spurs on the ropes before sagging a bit entering the fourth quarter with a narrow lead.
Those three guards made a difference, hit timely daggers that forced the Spurs to sag off Dirk, and were a combined 4-of-7 for 10 points with no turnovers in the third.
But there were disturbing signs as the quarter drew to a close. Dampier – playing much longer than his typical 8-of-10 minute stint against Duncan – picked up his fourth foul on a glaringly obvious dead-legged attempt to defend with about a minute left, and it was obvious he was out of juice. I noted aloud, “It’s time to get him out of the game. He’s a dead man walking out there.” Time to insert Haywood, who is fresh, before Damp picks up his fifth foul on a silly play that exploits his fatigue.
In fact, several Mavs badly needed a rest. While the Spurs had been subbing in and out during the third, Carlisle kept the “hot’’ lineup playing the whole way. After Terry had entered, no other subs utions were made in the third. It was time to recharge them for the stretch run – but they were never allowed that chance.
For the record, what I hoped to see was virtually the whole team subbed at that point. The Spurs had slowed a bit also, despite being given a chance to rest here and there, and it felt like a great time to put a big athletic lineup on the floor to force the action on both ends. My hope was for Haywood in the middle, with Marion and Butler and Stevenson to defend aggressively and try to force turnovers and run-outs with fresh legs against tired Spurs, led by Kidd for a few minutes while the other guards rested. It felt like an opportunity to hit the Spurs hard and leave them gasping – but in any event it was time for some Mavs to get a rest.
But when the fourth began, only Dirk was given a breather. Dampier – still running on fumes – was trotted out to start the quarter along with Marion and the three guards (Kidd, JET and Barea). And the Spurs took advantage, attacking the laboring Dampier to get easy baskets and to finally get him to commit his fifth foul. At that point, Dampier was finally given a rest, Dirk re-entered (for Marion) with Haywood – and the three guards still kept playing.
They never got a rest.
So how helpful was it for those three guards to stay in the game? No help at all. In fact, it was a killer, as the fatigue turned them all from huge energetic advantages in the third to zombies in the fourth. They played their hearts out, they gave it all they had, but those dead legs had no bounce to make a shot or keep up with the fresher Parker, Hill and Ginobili. In the final frame (until the Mavs were intentionally fouling and the game was essentially out of reach) they were a combined 1-of-10 with three turnovers.
But that doesn’t even tell the whole story. On possession after possession, the Mavs were so dead that one after another they would pass up wide open looks, knowing they didn’t have the freshness to take a decent shot.
While the three guards played essentially the entire half, things were different with their Spurs counterparts. Hill got rested early in the fourth, Manu had a five minute break in the third, and Parker sat for over two minutes in the third and for almost four minutes spanning the break between the quarters.
To the Mavs credit, they still managed to keep it close, until the Spurs hit three mid-range jumpers in a row after the three-minute mark while the Mavs couldn’t make a basket. Who was able to make those big shots? Parker -- who had been given the most rest.
The job of a coach is to put his players in the right position to win. Rick Carlisle did not -- and for that reason, this loss is on him.
“I’m in and out of the (of the lineup) like a rag doll," said Shawn Marion.
Why did he bench Marion? “You ask him. You go ask him," Marion said
"We got to stay focused and keep playing and stay together, but I can't control my minutes. I'm not the one doing the subbing. The minutes, when I'm in there, I'm going to play hard and that's all I can control.’’
"I want to play, definitely, I don't want to sit on the damn bench, but what can I do?" Marion said. "I'm not making the subs utions.’’
I thought this was some smack from D Fish.
lol.
Ricks getting smack from everyone. Barkley and the NBATV guys have ripped him.
He never established a rotation and its come back to bite him in the ass.
Benching Marion could come back to hurt him and the Mavs, Marion is quite the y crybaby as Sun fan will tell you. More JJ though please.
Not sure who was guarding Manu in the first half(maybe it was Marion) but wasn't he like 1-4 or something like that?
Manu was scoreless in the first half according to the game recap. Was Marion checking him?
Also, David Lord wrote this article, not Fish.
He started off 0-4, but I don't think dallas defense had much to do with it.
His first two shots were 3 pointers and he missed both (0-2), but he had pretty decent looks, just didn't fall.
His third shot was a hard drive to the rim that he barely missed. He makes about 75%+ of those, this was one of the 25% that he didn't make (0-3)
I don't remember his fourth shot, but he missed that one, then made one (1-5)
then in the fourth he was terrific. He attacked dampier who was dead tired and couldn't contest a wide open layup from Gino, then hit an and 1 on a layup later on as well.
Oh wait, he did miss a couple of shots in the 3rd that might be attributed to solid dallas D, but I don't remember who was on him.
"How can I be effective being pulled in and out like a rag doll," Marion said. "I'm going to go out and play hard when I step on the floor and that's all I can control. Go ask coach, you can't ask us. When I lace my shoes up I'm ready to go. I was told to stay on Ginobili. He didn't score that first half, you know what I'm saying? I had him on clamps. I was on him, but I can't control that."
Have the Spurs even won a game this series because they might possibly be the better team? Seems like its always Rick Carlisle's fault, I mean have the Mavs even lost a game this year without it being that guys fault...after every loss all you gots do is about him. Yall are worse than the ing Pop haters upstairs.
and lol @ Marion having Manu 'on clamps'
I generally like Carlisle, but he's doing a poor job coaching this series.
Dallas are playing into the Spurs hands by using all these small lineups. I haven't liked Rick Carlisle's rotation/lineups in this series. The most obvious compe ive advantage the Mavs have over the Spurs is their size, why not use it? Why allow the Spurs to put their best offensive line-up out there without fearing being punished on the other side? Butler, Marion and Haywood should play more.
Did you even read the article dumb .
The Spurs were in control for most of the first half and had a 7-10 lead throughout idiot, with the line-up they used for the second half they managed to cut it by 3 at halftime...with that same line-up they had built an 8 point lead late in the 3rd quarter. With that same line-up the game came down to the last possessions. I realize Barea is yalls whipping boy and , and that Butler+Marion are supposed to be your saviors but last night Barea was one of your better players and the other two were playing like vaginas. Kind of hard to fault Rick for giving guys like Barea and Terry minutes over those two guys. Perhaps he couldve sneaked some rests in there but other than that, there is nothing wrong with riding the hot line-up as long as possible. Dallas almost pulled it off, if Mavs win these same writers are probably crucifying guys like Butler and Marion for not stepping up instead of victimizing them for not getting a chance.
Manu actually got on the board right before the end of the 2nd quarter, and he took only 5 shots in the first half, two of which were 3 pointers.
Manu was simply finding open teammates. Look at the assist to Duncan for the dunk for a play he could have finished himself. He actually ended up with a team high 7 assists.
Before the series started we talked about how important Manu was for us, and it wasn't just his scoring. He gets a lot of people going for us.
I understood why he stuck with Barea when he was hot, but you can't play him the whole damn game. At some point you have to go back to your starters or at least give him a rests. Rick lost us that game last night.
Kidd actually did the best job on Manu overall for the series so far, IMO. There's two problems with that approach though: He can't stay in front of Manu on the high pick and roll, as we saw at the start of the 4th, and that also leaves Barea or JET to check Parker, who is going to be improving as the series goes along.
derek fisher " thank you for playing my stlyle of defense"
me too.. unfortunate
That's right Shawn, stay aggressive and pushing the envelope. When you get your minutes, start chucking like there's no tomorrow.
NO. Carlisle is paid to sabotage his team.
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