Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle has been fined $25,000 for public criticism of officiating, the league announced on Saturday via official release.
The comments were made following a tough 130-128 Game 3 loss to the Rockets on Friday, when Carlisle ripped the officials for allowing Dwight Howard to be too physical in, as he put it, throwing his players around.
“My hope is that in Game 4 – the one play that’s kind of an image stuck in my mind, and I just looked at it six times on the film, is the first play of the fourth quarter,” Carlisle said. “We’re scrambling like hell defensively, and Devin Harris is going to get the ball, and Dwight Howard throws him into our bench. He takes the ball, skips it over the top and Ariza gets a wide-open three.
“So, instead of us getting the ball, and a foul on Howard, it turns into essentially a 5-6 point swing. That stuff’s got to stop. The officials [have] got to get that stuff under control, because there’s too much physical stuff going on. Howard is throwing people all over the place. And that can’t happen in Game 4.”
It seemed odd to single out one possession that occurred with essentially the entire fourth quarter yet to be played, but Carlisle obviously believed that was a microcosm of what his players have been dealing with throughout the series where Howard is concerned.
