DALLAS _ Rick Carlisle insists he's holding up fine. "Great," in fact, is how he puts it. Thanks for asking. Nothing to see here.
It's difficult, though, to watch Carlisle these days without wondering. In 15 years as an NBA head coach, he's never had a season remotely like the one his Mavericks are enduring.
The 4-17 record Dallas brought into Friday night's game against Indiana at American Airlines Center was momentous, if that's the right word, in that it was the first time one of Carlisle's teams had fallen 13 games below .500.
The Mavericks' 111-103 victory at least briefly lifted Carlisle out of the uncharted abyss, but at these depths the challenge for the rest of the season remains unchanged.
Wesley Matthews paced the Mavs with 26 points while Harrison Barnes added 25. Paul George led the Pacers (11-12) with 22 points.
Even for a championship-winning coach who is almost universally regarded to be one of the NBA's three best strategists.
"Well, there's opportunity here for everybody," Carlisle said. "We've all got to find it. Obviously, developing younger guys, giving them a chance to play, trying to help position them to play well _ those are the big challenges.
"This is valuable 'opportunity time' that wouldn't be happening if we were whole. We've got to do it the right way and get these guys ready to go in the future."
During his nine seasons in Dallas, Carlisle has proved to be an adept coach for all circumstances _ except for this one, the results of which are to be determined.
He was the ideal successor for Avery Johnson, maintaining defensive principles and instilling his own, along with an innovative flow offense that has optimized the latter half of Dirk Nowitzki's career.
In his third season, 2011, Carlisle coached the franchise out of its long malaise of playoff disappointments and to an improbable NBA title.
From 2012 to 2015 he and Nowitzki remained franchise pillars amid a revolving cast of complementary players, never finishing below .500.
Now, though, what is Carlisle expected to salvage of a season in which 38-year-old Nowitzki's absence with Achilles strain remains "indefinite" and reaching .500 is unfathomable?
"Try to win games and get better as a team," owner Mark Cuban said Saturday of Carlisle's task. "That's it. Try to get better.
"That's how players get better and that's how you set a platform so you don't find yourself four years away from being four years away trying to be four years away from competing with the guys who are four years away."
