Parsons said wish was worth a shot

DALLAS – Chandler Parsons lobbied hard to be on the court in the second half and have the Dallas Mavericks ditch the idea of him playing only in the first half while he gets in better game condition.

Parsons’ wish was dutifully granted by coach Rick Carlisle, and the experiment of playing him just in the second half failed miserably Thursday night as the Charlotte Hornets pounded the Mavs, 108-94, at American Airlines Center.

In their previous two games against the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors, Parsons played 12 minutes against the Lakers and 14 against the Raptors. All of those minutes came in the first half of those games.

However, anxious to be more of a factor in the waning seconds of games, Parsons broached the idea to Carlisle of playing in the second half instead of the first half. And the results were not very good.

"It was something that I asked for and it's almost like the basketball gods said, ‘Here ya go for the dumb(expletive delete) idea,’ ‘’ Parsons said. "But ah, it was worth a shot and we can't hang our heads on one game."

In 14 second-half minutes against the Hornets, Parsons was 1-of-6 from the field, 0-of-3 from 3-point range and finished with two points, one rebound and one steal.

And while the Mavs only trailed 54-53 at halftime, they finished a minus-16 with Parsons on the floor. So, could things been different had Parsons played in the first half Thursday instead of in the second half.

"It's easy to say now that it was a stupid idea, but it was just a thought,’’ Parsons said. "We gave it a shot.

"That's one thing I respect about Coach Carlisle. He's very open to ideas like that, and clearly it didn't work. I don't think it had everything to do with me just checking in and then the avalanche came.’’

But the avalanche did come. And it was massive.

The Hornets totally obliterated the Mavs with an attacking power game as they scored 58 points inside the paint on 29-of-42 shots.

This was the first time Carlisle had ever played a regular starter only in the second half as he tries to regain his conditioning.

"You can’t blame the loss on that,’’ Carlisle said. "That’s just not what this is about.’’

For part of the first half, Parsons was on the Mavs’ underground practice court trying to keep his body warm.

"I felt fine,’’ Parsons said. "I came back here in the second quarter and warmed up and shot a little bit, went through my regular pre-game routine.

"It was different.’’

And it likely will be the last time the Mavs (2-3) use that experiment.

"We have to correct some things, but it's a long season,’’ Parsons said. "There's going to be ups and downs, but that was brutal man, especially in the third quarter.

"We just couldn't get anything going."

The Mavs shot 39 percent from the field, allowed Charlotte to shoot 49.4 percent, and were outrebounded 48-44. Clearly, they need to experiment with something else besides just limiting Parsons to second-half duties.

"We need to get much better in every area -- physically, play-making, turnovers, defensively,’’ Parsons said. "We have huge holes.

"We have some room to improve for sure. It's difficult, not playing together for a while, but we can't continue to say that all season long. A lot of team go through that. We have to get better for sure."

Dwain Price can be heard every Wednesday from 3-4 p.m. on dfwiradio.com.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 11:27 PM with the headline "Parsons said wish was worth a shot."