DALLAS _ Rick Carlisle has said he wants defense-first and rebounding-whiz DeAndre Jordan to be more involved on the offensive end of the floor.
Sunday night proved it.
Jordan is in his 11th season and while he has 270 double doubles for his career, he has never had a triple double.
He came close Sunday in the Mavericks' 113-104 loss to the Jazz.
He had piled up eight points and eight assists to go with 15 rebounds through three quarters against the Jazz.
His career best before Sunday had been six assists.
Jordan got his ninth helper on a backdoor cut by Wesley Matthews, a play that the Mavericks ran often as they clearly saw something with Utah's defense.
But the 10th assist would not come. He hit two free throws with 4:04 to play to reach 10 points. He's had a double-double in all six games this season.
He had one opportunity in the final 30 seconds to get the 10th assist, but after an offensive rebound, Jordan fed Harrison Barnes on the 3-point line. Barnes missed the heave.
"It was the flow of the offense," Jordan said of his big assist night. "I'm up there at the top of the key a lot trying to make plays. Wes and Dennis and Harrison did a great job of cutting and it was easy to find them. But we lost the game, so it didn't really matter too much."
Carlisle made improving Jordan's offensive chances a priority when he was recruiting him in free agency in 2015. He is showing through six games that he can be a playmaker from the top of the key.
"He's a terrific player," Carlisle said. "We have him doing some things that he hasn't done much of and he's shown he's very effective at it, which is great to see."
