“The Call Was Wrong”: Dallas Mavericks Coach Justifies Ejection During Clippers Defeat

Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks suffered a crushing defeat by the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 5 of the series. Doncic had a historic performance in Game 4, but there is only so much a single man can do. Ultimately, Clippers superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George blew out the Mavs.

The major talking point of the game was Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle’s ejection in the mid-third quarter. When a team is already down by a healthy margin in crunch time, losing their head coach can be extremely demoralizing.

As a result, the Dallas squad collapsed and lost the game by 43 points!

Can the Dallas Mavericks regroup after game 5?

Getting blown out in Game 5 shifted the power scale toward the Clippers. Moreover, Paul George scored 35 points in just 25 minutes, channeling his inner beast.

In Game 5, everything was going George’s way, and in a way, he was involved in Rick Carlisle’s ejection too. During the third quarter, a technical foul was called on George, which sent Mavs guard Tim Hardaway Jr. to the line.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers challenged the call, leading to a heated argument between Coach Carlisle and referee Kane Fitzgerald.

In the post-game conference, Carlisle cleared the air about what happened according to him during that play. He said:

“What I saw was that Hardaway had the ball and a timeout was called by the official. My understanding in that situation is that once a shooter has the ball, a timeout cannot be called by the opposing coach. I thought that the call was wrong, and so I was asking about it and wasn’t getting a great explanation. Then it turned into a technical and another technical. I was just standing up for my team.”

Carlisle gave his insight on what cost them the game:

“We had a good start in the first couple of minutes, you know we had a five or six point lead. And then they came out as hard and physically.” said Carlisle. “They made a run, and we just did not have good answers, so it was tough go out there.”

Playing a strong defensive team like the LA Clippers is always a tough nut to crack. Further, Mavs are missing their second superstar in Kristaps Porzingis as well. If they want to win the next game, they need both Luka and Porzingis at their top.