Tyrone Corbin had other plans.
He proceeded to draw a foul from the sidelines, on Mavs swingman Jae Crowder, opting to send Kanter to the line. He’d hit both free throws.
Dallas big man Brendan Wright then beat the shot clock with a pretty baseline J, that Corbin answered by drawing up an and-1 for Alec Burks and not one, but two rebounds (one defensive and one offensive) and a putback dunk for Jeremy Evans in the following sequence. Suddenly, the lead was cut to 12 with 1:44 remaining. Corbin then wisely took advantage of a timeout. (As did the entire broadcast and the majority of fans in attendance)
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle found himself in the midst of an unexpected battle of wits. He immediately inserted Bernard James, and drew up a beautiful play. He ordered James to get fouled and hit one of two free throws. Bernard obliged, and executed the plan perfectly.
In a seemingly trivial stretch of an already-decided game, we were obviously being treated to what will amount to be one of the more memorable clipboard duels of the season.
After four straight free throws by Gordon Hayward and Carroll, that other Maverick named ‘James’, Mike, committed a turnover and Evans converted a short bucket to cut the lead to seven with only 24 ticks left on the clock.
Timeout Corbin.
He was a young coach, growing right before our eyes. It was a marvel that left the 476 remaining Mavericks fans in a stunned daze.
