Carlisle lambastes Mavericks’ effort in loss to Raptors

Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle wasn’t a happy camper after his team’s 103-99 loss to the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre.

Following Tuesday’s defeat, in which the Mavs trailed 32-16 after the first quarter, Carlisle issued a stern warning directed squarely at his team.

“Do I look happy? Would you be happy?” Carlisle asked. “It was a 24-minute take-you-to-the-beach, kick your butt, kick sand in your face type deal.

“We come in at halftime and we’re finally [upset], I get on their case and we decide to bust our [rear ends] in the third quarter and we played a hell of a third quarter. But look, if it’s going to be like that these guys aren’t going to be Mavericks very long — I can promise you that.”

In the loss, Dirk Nowitzki scored 20 points in 28 minutes and is now just 10 points away from passing Shaquille O’Neal and becoming the No. 6 all-time scorer in NBA history. But Nowitzki’s chase for history was not on Carlisle’s mind after the Mavs shot 43.5 percent from the field and were outrebounded by a whopping 53-34 margin.

“We got our [rear ends] kicked in the beginning of the game,” Carlisle said. “We knew they were going to come out hard — they did the exact same thing in Dallas [in November].

The Mavs were behind 90-74 with 5:51 left before Carlisle emptied his bench, and the reserves put up a good fight. A basket inside the paint by Jeremy Evans got Dallas within 101-99 with 11.6 seconds left.

Evans was fouled on the play but missed the free-throw attempt.

Terrence Ross then buried a pair of free throws with 10.5 seconds left to account for the final margin.

“The guys the last six minutes were unbelievably scrappy,” Carlisle said. “They played unconditionally hard, they played unselfishly and they gave us a chance.

“I’m proud of the way those guys played and I hope everybody on our roster sees the example that they set.”

The Mavs, who were down 32-14 late in the first quarter, lost point guard Deron Williams to a strained left hamstring, and his status for Wednesday’s game in Brooklyn against the Nets hasn’t been determined.

“My hammy has been a little tight the last couple of games,” Williams said. “I came to the bench and told [head athletic trainer] Casey [Smith] it was a little tighter than normal, and as soon as I went back out there I went to plant, push off and I just felt a little pop.”

Williams played the past four seasons for the Nets and was looking forward to playing against the team that bought out his contract last summer for $27.5 million.

“The last thing I want to do is miss this game tomorrow — it’s definitely frustrating,”

The Mavs (15-13) as a whole were frustrating on a night in which the Raptors (18-12) shot 47.3 percent from the field, converted 12 of 26 shots from 3-point range and led by wire-to-wire.

“They just came out hitting first in the first quarter,” said Williams, who finished with seven points and six assists. “It looked like they wanted the game a little bit more than us.

“They were active, they took us out of our offense. We couldn’t buy a basket, and our defense suffered because of that. We just let them kind of do whatever they wanted on the other end.”

And in the end, Carlisle threatened to have a whole new team — if things don’t change real soon.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 10:24 PM with the headline "Carlisle lambastes Mavericks’ effort in loss to Raptors."