DALLAS _ Basketball is a game of matchups. So, when Rick Carlisle puts a certain lineup on the floor, it’s mainly based on those strategic matchups.
And the Dallas Mavericks coach is always searching for a matchup that’ll work in his favor. Thus, when asked how he determines who plays and who sits during certain times of a game, Carlisle said:
“Sometimes it’s matchup based, sometimes it’s me going by the seat of my pants, sometimes it has to do with who’s tired, sometimes it has to do with who the other team has in the game. But we’ve got to be able to play a lot of different ways.
“Right now just the fact that we’ve thrown a lot of different lineups out there is something that we’ve got to view as something that’s going to help us going forward.’’
With games coming fast due to the lockout and compact 66-game schedule, Carlisle knows set rotations will not be the norm this season. So that doesn’t even figure into his game plan, regardless of who the Mavs are playing.
“It’s not very rhythmatic, and it doesn’t lend itself to comfort and those kinds of things with having a set rotation,’’ Carlisle said. “But what it is doing is keeping guys playing hard because you play until you’re tired, then give me a fist to come out and we’ll get another fresh guy in here.
“That’s a big part of the formula for winning this year.’’
-- Dwain Price
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