DALLAS — Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle was asked what he felt he learned about his team late in Wednesday’s game, when they let a 12-point lead get down to one before hanging on for a 114-111 win over the New York Knicks.
“That our pick-and-roll defense was horrible,” Carlisle said, matter-of-factly. “That was the first thing. We’ve got to be better in that area. I like the way we hung in. We did some good things to get a lead, but we really just outscored them during that stretch. We just weren’t able to get much traction defensively.”
Carlisle said because of that, his team focused on defense in Friday’s practice after taking Thanksgiving Day off. In a little over five minutes down the stretch on Wednesday, Dallas was outscored 21-10. Part of the issue is the club hasn’t rebounded as well this season and Carlisle has mentioned cutting down on turnovers. Carlisle knows it needs to be better Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers.
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