Mavs must pay attention to details

DALLAS – Details, details, details.

That’s the battle cry coaches often claim are the difference between winning and losing. And those are exactly the cries of Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, whose team is 30-28 and have lost six of the their last eight games.

"We’ve got to manage the details of the game extremely well to win,’’ Carlisle said after Thursday’s practice at American Airlines Center. "This league right now is exactly what everybody wanted in the last collective bargaining agreement -- lots of close games, lots of tight games down the stretch, teams having an equal chance to win regardless of market size.

"It’s an exciting time for the NBA on the one hand. On the other hand you’ve got to have your game together, you’ve got to be tight, you’ve got to be tied together and you’ve got to be doing things extremely well to win consistent, and that’s where we are and we’ve got to pick it up.’’

After losing Wednesday at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-103, the Mavs will get a chance pick things up when they host the Denver Nuggets on Friday night at 7:30 at AAC. And the Mavs know that just because the Nuggets are 23-35 on the season, that doesn’t mean this will be an easy game to win.

Especially since the Nuggets went to Los Angeles and defeated the Clippers on Wednesday, 87-81. It was the fewest points Denver has allowed in a game this season.

"They’re a team that’s been a hard matchup for us for years, even when they haven’t been good, record-wise,’’ Carlisle said. "They’re quick and they rebound.

"Again, they’ve established some mojo this year, they’re playing better, they’re gaining collective toughness and they’re trying to win. It’s going to be a hard game, as it was in November.’’

The Mavs beat the Nuggets, 92-81, in Dallas, on Nov. 28. And they still have to go to Denver to play the much-improved Nuggets two other times – on Mar. 6 and Mar. 28.

"At this time of the year you’ve got so many teams that are really starting to find themselves, and they’re starting to play better regardless of what their record is,’’ guard Raymond Felton said. "These teams are playing for pride and they’re playing to win games, and anything can happen.

"Those guys are playing better now than they were early in the year, so it’s not going to be an easy game for us tomorrow, but it’s a game that we’ve got to have. So no matter what we still got to get this win.’’

The Mavs are 1-1 on this season-high six-game home stand. They’re hoping to make some strong headway during this home stand, but they’re only an above average 16-12 at home.

"These time of days you can’t really (guarantee a win at home), because on any given night you’ve got to play,’’ Felton said. "Philadelphia could have come in here (last Sunday) and beat us – anybody, it’s happened.

"That’s just the type of year it’s been. You really look at those games like that. You got to look at these games like these are need wins – all four of them. So we’ve got to go get them, regardless of who we’re playing.’’

Carlisle expressed to his team on Thursday on how they need to be dialed in to what’s happening during the game for the entire 48 minutes. And he pointed a few attentions to details that proved pivotal during the loss to the Thunder.

"We had two five-point swings and one four-point swing, and all three of them went their way and it put us in a bad way,’’ Carlisle said. "One of the things today that I talked about with our guys was we showed some of these plays and just talked about the very micro-thin margins for errors that we had, and the fact that all these plays could have easily gone our way.

"But we’ve got to make them go our way.’’

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 8:37 PM with the headline "Mavs must pay attention to details."