Mavs Spotlight: Carlisle, Mavs 'circle the wagons' after loss to Lakers before road back-to-back
Earl K. Sneed shines the Mavs Spotlight on the Dallas defense, as the Mavericks try to bounce back from their worst loss of the season before heading out on the road for a back-to-back.
Mavs Spotlight: Carlisle, Mavs 'circle the wagons' after loss to Lakers before road back-to-back
DALLAS — Was Saturday night just an aberration or do the Dallas Mavericks have serious concerns as they embark on the road for the start of a two-game road trip?
That’s the question circling the brains of many Mavericks fans after watching their team fall to a season-worst defeat Saturday night to the Los Angeles Lakers. And after a 115-89 throttling to complete a 1-2 homestand, the Mavericks (7-7) will now head out away from the American Airlines Center for a back-to-back in Philadelphia and Chicago, hoping to right their wrongs while putting the disappointing showing against the Lakers behind them.
“It was disgusting. It’s disappointing for our fans what kind of game that was,” big man Elton Brand said of the lopsided loss. “We know how bad they wanted this game. We should have wanted it as bad as they wanted it and we didn’t come with it.”
“Look, we had a lot of guys struggle, so today is not a day to single out one guy,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle added. “Today’s a day to circle the wagons and work on getting better as a team. That’s what we’ve done, and we’ve got another practice (Monday) and then we’ve gotta hit the road.”
Outshot by the Lakers, 48.8 percent to 37 percent, while also getting dominated in the rebounding department, 61-39, the Mavs lacked a spark at both ends of the floor while the Lakers ended a four-game road losing streak. Meanwhile, the Mavericks’ lack of offensive success was compounded by 15 turnovers for 22 L.A. points.
But it’s the defensive woes that gave Carlisle the biggest pause for concern as the team returned to the practice court on Sunday. And with his team ranked 27th out of 30 in points allowed, the coach was emphatic that something must change on the defensive end of the floor if the Mavs are going to get things corrected on the road.
“Just a lot of individual breakdowns, which led to a lot of team breakdowns. … We have to study the game (against the Lakers) and take the relevant things from it, apply them to today’s practice, apply them to tomorrow’s practice and then we’ve gotta get ready for Philly on Tuesday,” Carlisle explained after the Lakers finished with a 50-36 margin in points in the paint.
“I don’t want to let it go in the past, I want to learn from it,” point guard Darren Collison added while looking back at the loss on Saturday night. “I think team-wise we didn’t play nearly as good of defense as we normally can. … We weren’t tied in and our weak side defense had a big part in that. We didn’t help the guys that were getting beat off the dribble and rightfully so, we’ve gotta help. This is a team thing, you can’t guard anybody one-on-one. But, you know, we’ve gotta just do a better job of staying in front of guys individually and we’ve gotta do a better job of helping each other out.”
Collison may have to lead the collective effort on defense come Tuesday night, charged with slowing down 76ers point guard Jrue Holiday after his career-high 33 points and 13 assists helped lead Philadelphia to a 104-101 win over Phoenix to move to 8-6 on the season.
Note: The Mavs will head out on the road for a back-to-back beginning Tuesday night, touching down in Philadelphia for a battle against the 76ers. The game will air locally at 6 p.m. CT on Fox Sports Southwest and nationally on NBA TV.
