Rick Carlisle blamed slow starts for the Dallas Mavericks struggles of late. But he wasn’t prepared to change the starting lineup going into Tuesday’s game against the Orlando Magic.
“I’ve looked at it and looked at the possibility of changing of it,” Carlisle said in his pregame news conference. “Changing it would open up other challenges that would probably be greater. We just simply have to do better. I know we can. This is a challenging situation that we’ve got to just work through.”
Well, that mindset changed at halftime. Trailing 48-43, Carlisle inserted Yogi Ferrell into the second half starting lineup for Maxi Kleber and it sparked the Mavericks to a much-needed 114-99 victory over the Magic.