Rick Carlisle did not approve of the officiating in the Mavericks' home loss to the NBA's best team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, last night. After drawing a technical earlier in the second half, he angrily kicked the ball into the baseline crowd (admittedly aiming at chipping it to the official at a high rate of speed) after another no-call went against his guys and was ejected. He took a moment to apologize to the fans who received his ball of anger, then departed via the midcourt exit.
Carlisle's antics were pretty rare for him, but they were indicative of what Dallas thought of the performance by Ron Garretson, Michael Smith and Mark Ayotte. Terry Stotts did plenty of yelling himself, as he coached the Mavs back to a tie late in the fourth only to see them lose by nine, and so did Mark Cuban.
Cuban wasn't finished when the game was over, however.
↵↵↵Look, I haven't said a whole lot about the officiating in a long, long time, but I haven't seen it this bad in a long, long time. Guys miss calls; that's part of the game. You're not always going to have a great crew. Officials have got to learn that's part of the game.
↵But these were officials that have been part of the league for years, and it was just off-the-charts bad. And, if no one ever says anything, nothing ever happens.
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It was one of the worst nights of Dirk Nowitzki's career. It wasn't Carlisle's best night, and whether or not Cuban should have said it to the media, I have to agree that it was certainly not Ron Garretson's crew's best.
↵quotes courtesy of Tim McMahon's postgame story
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