TORONTO — Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle ripped into his team after a 103-99 loss to the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday. The Raptors scored 14 of the game’s first 16 points and held an 18-point lead at one point in the opening quarter, prompting Carlisle’s tirade.
“We got our asses kicked at the beginning of the game,” Carlisle said. “We knew they were going to come out hard. They did the exact same thing in Dallas. They’re coming off a tough loss. They’re very aggressive by nature. We really knew it, we talked a lot about it and we didn’t handle it well. And it was, frankly, it was embarrassing.”
A reporter asked Carlisle if he was unhappy with the starters, and Carlisle essentially threatened to have them traded.
“Do I look happy?” he said. “I mean, would you be happy? Look, it was a 24-minute, take-you-to-the-beach, kick-your-butt, kick-sand-in-your-face type deal. And then, hey, we come in at halftime and we’re finally pissed, I get on their case and we decide to bust our ass in the third quarter. And we played a hell of a third quarter. But, look, if it’s going to be like that, these guys aren’t going to be Mavericks very long. I can promise you that.”
With 7:18 left in the game and Dallas down by 12 points, Carlisle pulled forwards Dirk Nowitzki and Chandler Parsons. With 5:30 left, trailing by 16, he pulled guard Raymond Felton, guard Wesley Matthews and big man Dwight Powell. Guard Deron Williams had to leave the game in the third quarter with a strained hamstring. Improbably, reserves J.J. Barea, John Jenkins, Justin Anderson, Jeremy Evans and Charlie Villanueva proceeded to lead a comeback, getting the Mavericks within two points with 10 seconds left. Toronto made enough free throws at the end to hold them off.
“The guys the last six minutes were unbelievably scrappy,” Carlisle said. “They played unconditionally hard. They played unselfishly. And they gave us a chance. They gave us a chance and I’m proud of the way those guys played. And I hope everybody on our roster sees the example that they set.”
Considering Dallas lost to a playoff team on the road, this reaction and the mood in the locker room were perhaps more negative than you would expect. The Mavericks’ record is a respectable 15-13, good for fifth in the Western Conference, but they haven’t strung more than a couple of victories together in the past month. When Carlisle’s comments were relayed to Matthews, he said that the team just has to play harder and start winning.
“I don’t want to make any more excuses for this,” Matthews said. “I mean, we gotta start being who the hell we are and who we can be. That’s what I take away from Coach’s message. I’m not taking offense to anything. Just play hard, play together, play unselfish, win games. That’s it.”
Matthews added that he was proud of the way Dallas’ bench competed. “They played with that energy that we need to play with all the time,” he said, echoing his coach in terms of his sentiment and his obvious frustration.
“We gotta get excited for each other doing the little things,” Matthews said. “We gotta get excited when there’s a charge. We gotta get excited when we’re forcing 24 seconds. We gotta get excited when there’s a blocked shot. We gotta get excited for deflections, a steal. That’s gotta get us going. That’s gotta get our juice going. We gotta get hyped for that. When it’s a scrum, when it’s a battle and they deflect it out of bounds and it’s our way, that’s what’s gotta fuel us. And it’s not right now.”
Courtesy: CBS Sports
