DALLAS -- Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle brought a prop to his news conference after Game 4 and pounced on the first chance to show off his dry wit.
That opportunity came when Carlisle was asked about the physicality of a 121-109 Dallas win over the Houston Rockets that featured 52 fouls and five technical fouls.
“Are you asking me a question about the officiating?” Carlisle deadpanned, staring at the inquiring reporter before a smirk crept onto his face. “I brought something just for that.”
As he uttered that last line, Carlisle reached down to his right, picked up the short piece of athletic tape he’d brought with him to the podium and put it over his mouth. It was a humorous way to get his message across without putting himself at risk of having the NBA office reach into his pocket for the second time in a few days.
You could argue that Carlisle didn’t get his money’s worth from his $25,000 fine for criticizing the officiating after Dallas’ Game 3 loss. After all, he did get T’d up in Game 4 for arguing about a foul called against Dirk Nowitzki when Rockets center Dwight Howard used his right forearm to create space -- pretty much the exact same action Carlisle made a point to bring up after the previous game.
However, you could also make a case that Carlisle’s money was well spent for the message it sent to the Mavs. It let his players know that he would fight for them, and much more subtly, that they weren’t fighting hard enough.
“They’re a more physical team, but this series has got to be played within the rules,” Carlisle said after Game 3, wrapping up his complaints about the officiating.
The Rockets weren’t the more physical team in Game 4. The Mavs can’t allow Houston to be the more physical team the rest of the series, if they want the series to last longer than five games.
Carlisle has repeatedly pointed to the Mavs’ 52-38 rebounding edge in Game 4 as the most important statistic from their sweep-avoiding victory. That’s a remarkable accomplishment for a Dallas team that ranked dead last in the league in rebounding percentage (47.8) during the regular season.
But the rebounding wasn’t lopsided in the first three games of the series, with the Rockets grabbing only one more board than the Mavs while building their 3-0 lead. The problem was that the Rockets pushed the Mavs around, scoring 60 points in the paint in both Games 2 and 3 and ending up with the lion’s share of 50-50 balls.
“That s--- was too much last game,” said Mavs center Tyson Chandler, who got whistled for a double technical along with Howard late in Game 4 when the big men got tangled up. “It’s not even about playing dirty or anything like that. It’s about holding your ground.”
It wasn’t a rebound or a bucket that the Mavs unanimously considered the most important play of the game. It was Devin Harris’ dunk-denying foul on Howard, who ended up on the ground despite outweighing the Dallas guard by about 85 pounds.
“Mom didn’t let me play football,” Harris joked. “I’ve got to get [tackles] in when I can.”
In this instance, Harris had to do whatever possible to prevent Howard from finishing the fast break with a ferocious dunk. The Rockets had a 38-31 lead with 8:59 remaining in the second quarter when Harris wrapped up Howard, who had dominated the first quarter with 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting with Chandler in foul trouble.
The refs ruled it a flagrant foul 1, but that was fine with the Mavs, especially after Howard missed both free throws. The message had been sent that the Mavs weren’t backing down.
Howard didn’t get another bucket the rest of the game. By the end of the half, the Mavs had an eight-point lead and a ton of momentum.
“It turned the game around,” Mavs shooting guard Monta Ellis said. “That was an old-school foul. Unfortunately, he got a flagrant 1, but we needed that and it really gave us a spark.”
Dallas, which is trying to make NBA history by becoming the first team to overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a series, might go down. But the Mavs will definitely go down with a fight.