DALLAS -– Rick Carlisle has his eyes wide open about the concerns he has for his team’s
defense.
The Dallas Mavericks coach has watched -- in agony -- his team get beat too many times on dribble penetration, or one-on-one defense, and on not playing any help-defense. It’s enough to make a coach shake his head in disgust.
“We do have to be able to defend,’’ Carlisle said after Monday’s practice at American Airlines Center.
“The other part of this is shot-making comes and goes, regardless of how good of a shooting team you are.
“And when it’s not there on certain nights, your defense has got to hold you in games, and we haven’t done that. That’s where we’ve got to just have a shift in our thinking and in our approach on the defensive end and how important it is.’’
After Saturday’s embarrassing 115-89 loss at home to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Mavs woke up this morning tied for 27th in the NBA in points allowed at 101.6 per game. Some of that, Carlisle surmised, is directly related to whether or not the Mavs are putting the all through the basket.
“If you’re not making shots the other team is going to have a better chance to score, because they’re getting the rebound and creating a steal or a deflection,’’ Carlisle said. “If the ball goes in you’ve always got a much better chance to set your defense.
“That said, there’s probably kind of a collective belief in this league that teams are probably going to be more energized defensively if they’re making shots.’’
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It’s a theory Carlisle knows is
shared by many.
“We’ve got to be different,’’ he said. “We’ve got to have the energy
defensively on a consistent basis regardless of the shot-making, and that’s got
to be our beginning point.
“There’s 29 other coaches that are saying the same thing. It’s a challenge
we’ve got to take on.’’
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