Mavs Moneyball - Gameday: Dallas Mavericks vs. Detroit PistonsRick Carlisle approved.https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/50869/mmb-fav.png2016-03-09T22:59:00-06:00http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/rss/stream/109483952016-03-09T22:59:00-06:002016-03-09T22:59:00-06:00Carlisle accuses referee of 'baiting' tech foul
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<figcaption>Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Carlisle said it was the first time in his 33 year career that he'd seen something like that happen.</p> <p><span>Rick Carlisle</span> blasted official David Jones for a technical foul he gave to <span>Deron Williams</span> midway through the third quarter in the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/">Mavericks</a>' 102-96 loss to the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.detroitbadboys.com/">Detroit Pistons</a> on Wednesday, saying he "baited" him into the play.</p>
<p>"For the first time in a 33-year NBA career, I saw a referee make a point of going out of his way and walking into our huddle and baiting one of our guys into a technical," Carlisle said in a post-game press conference. "I've never seen anything like that in my years in the league. I don't see how that can ever be excusable."</p>
<p>Here's video of the play, video SI's Ben Golliver.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-video">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here's video RT <a href="https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon">@espn_macmahon</a>: Rick Carlisle: Ref David Jones baited Deron Williams into T <a href="https://t.co/ZRKGQQTpyf">https://t.co/ZRKGQQTpyf</a> <a href="https://t.co/cdLVDX8XFR">pic.twitter.com/cdLVDX8XFR</a></p>
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenGolliver/status/707804905415819264">March 10, 2016</a>
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<p>The technical was handed out after the team went to timeout and <span>Reggie Jackson</span> missed the one-shot penalty with 7:33 left in the third quarter. David Jones, a 27-year referee veteran who has called over 1,500 NBA games, declined to comment when asked through a pool reporter.</p>
<p>"I'm not getting into that, but he clearly did, he clearly did," said Carlisle, asked how Jones baited Williams. "He went out of his way, could have walked away from it, but made a point of going back. I said, 'I got it, I got it, let it go.' He said, 'No, I got it,' and he walked back essentially into our huddle and baited Deron Williams into getting a technical.</p>
<p>"I don't think that that's right. An official's job is to defuse a situation, not blow it up. The referee we're talking about is an experienced guy. I've never seen anything like this. But those kinds of things, we've got to rise above them."</p>
<p>Deron Williams wouldn't talk about the situation following the game.</p>
<p>"You know what, I've never commented about officials in the 10 years of my career and I'm not going to start now," Williams said. "Things happen during a game. I got T'd up. That's all there is to it."</p>
<p>When pressed, Williams said he "didn't know" what the altercation was about and then repeated his answer above almost verbatim.</p>
<p>Carlisle only brought up the referee dispute six minutes into the post-game press conference, on one of the final questions. Asked about the confrontation after the game, both <span>Wesley Matthews</span> and <span>Zaza Pachulia</span> said they didn't see the play closely.</p>
<p><i>Updated at 11:53 with video of the technical foul.</i></p>
https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2016/3/9/11191604/rick-carlisle-referee-fine-baiting-deron-williams-technical-david-jonesTim Cato2016-03-09T22:25:12-06:002016-03-09T22:25:12-06:00Mavs drop fourth straight against Detroit
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<figcaption>Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Suddenly the Mavs have lost four straight games.</p> <p>The Dallas Mavericks lost at home Wednesday night. Again. They blew a late lead to a team with an inferior record. Again. They wasted a quality performance from Dirk Nowitzki. Again.</p>
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<p>Given what many so called "experts" and prognosticators were predicting for Dallas, it would likely be fair to say that the Mavericks had overachieved to at least some small degree at the start of the season. Perhaps that serves as the only worthwhile explanation for why they appear so listless, so inadequate, and so stunningly one-dimensional now.</p>
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<p><b>SECOND HAND POINTS KILL</b></p>
<p>Surprising no-one, the Pistons crushed Dallas on the glass, 51-40. They hauled in 15 offensive boards(6 from Andre Drummond), and used them to really break the Mavs' collective back with some big buckets in key situations. Even when Drummond was off the floor, Detroit seemed to be getting to balls more often than the home team, and one sequence that saw three Dallas players stand around watching a Piston guard get an easy putback sent coach Rick Carlisle into a convulsive outburst. You can really tell that Carlisle is frustrated by how his team has failed to rise out of this muck of recent play.</p>
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<p><b>DALLAS FORWARDS CARRY THE LOAD</b></p>
<p>Both Chandler Parsons and Dirk Nowitki scored 25 points. Dirk turned in another throwback performance, adding 10 rebounds and 3 assists. A couple of times late Dallas was either unable to get the ball to Dirk or unable to get him a good look, thanks to a scrappy defensive effort from a very game Detroit squad. The veteran Mav offense just has not looked sharp in late-game situations the last few weeks. Parsons, meanwhile, broke out of his mini-slump to shoot 11-20 from the field, along with 6 assists and 0 turnovers(though he did have a couple of poor decisions with the ball in this one that proved costly). The Dallas backcourt? Meh. D-Will had 9 dimes but shot poorly again. Wes Matthews hit his first two threes, and missed the rest.</p>
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<p><b>THE BENCH EQUATION: A PROBLEM?</b></p>
<p>Rick Carlisle has seemingly settled on David Lee and the three point guards as his bench group. No-one else logged a minute of game-time. While J.J. Barea had a nice stretch attacking the rim at one point, the multi-guard looks have been kind of a disaster lately. Neither Devin Harris nor Raymond Felton have shot the ball well this year, and it's really sapped the juice out of the Mavs' drive and kick offense. This is to say nothing of the defense, where closeouts almost always feature an undersized player rotating too late, and rim protection is completely non-existent. I fear that the unfortunate timing of the Devin and D-Will injuries around the All-Star Break made trading Felton too unpalatable for Carlisle, who had suddenly made Felton a late-game fixture. Dallas really could have benefited from trading his expiring deal for a halfway-decent wing shooter. One Rick Carlisle would actually play, of course(sorry John Jenkins).</p>
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<p>It's easy to point out problems when you've lost four straight games, but at this stage it's clear that changes need to be made, or else the Mavs' are going to be in a dogfight to even make the playoffs, let alone have a chance at being any sort of real competition in the first round.</p>
https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2016/3/9/11191432/dallas-falls-apart-in-fourth-quarter-again-loses-to-detroit-102-96Ian_Miller2016-03-09T00:00:02-06:002016-03-09T00:00:02-06:00Can the Mavs get back on track against Detroit?
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<figcaption>Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>After three deflating losses, Dallas may be at a crossroads in their season.</p> <p>Following last Wednesday's game against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.orlandopinstripedpost.com/">Magic</a>, the Mavs were riding high, having put up 120+ in three straight, all wins.</p>
<p>Boy, what a difference a week can make.</p>
<p>Dallas will host Detroit this Wednesday, and things are going to start to get really ugly fast if they don't show some signs of life against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.detroitbadboys.com/">Pistons</a>. The Mavs have lost three in a row, and all in varying degrees of embarrassment, from letting <span>Rajon Rondo</span> and a mess of a <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.sactownroyalty.com/">Kings</a>' squad steal one, to a pair of head-shaking miscues that cost them an overtime game in Denver, to the final insult of <span>DeAndre Jordan</span> dunking all over their home court in Monday's blowout against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.clipsnation.com/">Clippers</a>.</p>
<p>I cautioned against overreacting to the offensive fireworks the Mavs put on lesser teams last week, and I'll caution against doomsday predictions now, but sufficed to say Dallas is going in the wrong direction and the Pistons are hardly pushovers.</p>
<h4><b>What have the Pistons done lately?</b></h4>
<p>Much like the Mavs, Detroit is a bit up and down in their play, though that seems more forgivable considering the youth and inexperience on their roster. After being blown out against the lowly <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.postingandtoasting.com/">Knicks</a> Sunday, the Pistons flew home and promptly crushed February's hottest team, the Blazers. The Pistons have beaten a lot of good teams this year, but they're still on the bubble in the East playoff picture, a half game back from Chicago for the 8th and final seed. Detroit tried to be very active as buyers at the trade deadline, so it would appear that they are all in for the postseason push.</p>
<h4><b>What will be the biggest matchup?</b></h4>
<p>Dallas got a long look at DeAndre Jordan Monday, and against Detroit they'll face a similar presence in <span>Andre Drummond</span>, a dominant shot-blocker, rebounder and dunker who, chances are, we'll see the "hack-a" strategy employed against at some point (Dre is 6 for his last 27 from the free throw line, good for 22 percent). That means that <span>Zaza Pachulia</span> -- whose minutes have evaporated the last nine games after being a workhorse for most of the season -- will have to play some kind of role in this one, because otherwise Dallas does not have a lot of size to throw at Drummond. Unless you're cool with watching <span>David Lee</span> try to box him out.</p>
<h4><b>What stat might surprise you about Detroit?</b></h4>
<p>They are second to last in the league in assist rate (thanks <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/">Lakers</a>!), so you probably won't be seeing a lot of crisp ball movement going around. One of Stan Van Gundy's most notable contributions has been trying to feed Drummond in the post in a role similar to the one <span>Dwight Howard</span> had under Van Gundy in Orlando. The results haven't been too good; Drummond is enough of a physical freak to score, though it has sapped a big portion of his offensive efficiency and at times kills the Piston's flow at that end. More to the point, those Drummond post-ups are largely responsible for the Pistons' low assist total, as Drummond is 56 out of 58 qualified centers in individual assist rate (which also means he's 334th out of 336 players overall).</p>
<h4><b>How to watch</b></h4>
<p>Tip-off starts at 8:30 Eastern Time, 7:30 CT. You can watch on Fox Sports Southwest or on League Pass via your streaming device. So...let's go Mavs?</p>
https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2016/3/9/11183602/dallas-mavericks-detroit-pistons-game-preview-time-channelIan_Miller