Love me some Rick Carlisle. He’s got an NBA ring with the Mavs and a reputation as one of the league’s best in-game tacticians. He gets the ball to Dirk Nowitzki at the right spot and the right time and, more times than not, will diagram a play for his team to get an open look on an out-of-bounds set late in the game.
All that aside, I don’t agree or understand his reluctance to protect a late three-point lead by fouling.
The stubborn strategy to “play it out” bit the Mavs again last night, as Rodney Hood hit a corner 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation. In overtime, Gordon Hayward hit a fallway jumper and Dallas lost a game it should have won, sending us all into the All-Star break on a sour note.
It’s been a surprising, overachieving season for the Mavs. But this gut-wrenching loss could’ve – should’ve – been avoided.
It wasn’t, of course, all the head coach’s fault. The Mavs wasted a 15-point lead to a Jazz team they had beaten 10 times in a row. Still, the odds were greatly in their favor to win this game. If they’d only played them.
Leading by three with 7.1 seconds remaining, the Mavs should have fouled. At one point Utah point guard Trey Lyles (a 62-percent free-throw shooter) just stood and dribbled. Fouling would have made Utah make one free throw, purposely miss the second, grab the rebound and then make a shot to tie the game. All that, or they could simply make a 3-pointer from the corner.
“It’s an easy question to ask after the fact,” Carlisle admitted. “We decided not to. We decided to switch it and make them make as difficult shot as possible. They did. Give them credit.”
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Coach consistently take that gamble in the NBA every night, and I just don’t get it. Think about your morning highlights. You’ll see a game-tying 3-pointer on a routine basis. But when’s the last time you saw a team make a free throw, then miss one on purpose, grab the rebound and then make a 2-pointer? Rarely.
To me it’s almost simple math. I’d rather force the opposition to do four things perfectly on one possession in the final seconds, rather than just one thing.
Carlisle made the same decision last Saturday night in Memphis, and the Grizzlies likewise made a 3-pointer to tie the game. The Mavs managed to win that game in overtime, but not this one.
“We’ve got to be smarter about it,” said center Zaza Pachulia. “We’ve been in this situation so many times. We give up 3s and go into overtime. We just have to be smarter. Fouling is one of the options. We just have to be on the same page and make sure he doesn’t get a 3. It’s frustrating, real frustrating.”
A native Texan who was born in Duncanville and graduated from UT-Arlington, Richie Whitt has been a mainstay in the Metroplex media since 1986. He’s held prominent roles on all media platforms including newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer), radio (105.3 The Fan) and TV (co-host on TXA 21 and numerous guest appearances, including NBC 5). He lives in McKinney with his wife, Sybil, and two very spoiled dogs.
