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Rick Carlisle, deep into Mavericks blowouts, is now calling timeouts that he doesn't have

Rick Carlisle, to the consternation of his innocent players, draws up a bad play. (Getty Images)
Rick Carlisle, to the consternation of his innocent players, draws up a bad play. (Getty Images)

Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle isn’t even two months into the what will be the worst season of his coaching career, and yet he wants to keep the ride lasting as long as possible.

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Carlisle, the longtime head coach of the 2011 champion Dallas Mavericks, took two timeouts late in his team’s 120-89 blowout home loss to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, despite the fact that his team was, technically, out of timeouts.

As a result, a technical foul was called – resulting in a free throw each time for the Kings, and a $2000 fine for the team. Via Tim Cato at Mavs Moneyball, here is Carlisle explaining the tactic on Thursday following Dallas practice:

From Brad Townsend at SportsDay:

“You don’t ever really run out of timeouts,” Carlisle explained after the Mavericks’ Thursday practice, somehow keeping a straight face. “They just have a price.”

Townsend revealed that this isn’t the first time Carlisle has pulled the trick before – a prior time came during his team’s blowout loss to the New York Knicks on Nov. 14 – but we hadn’t noticed. Pardon our laziness, but we’re not in the habit of watching the final quarters of Dallas Mavericks blowout losses.

Charged with following the most brazen attempt at Texan duplicity that we’ve seen since Lyndon Johnson’s days of stealing local elections, we will no longer shy away from paying strident attention to these quote unquote Mavericks.

The Mavs are currently stuck at 4-17, working mostly without the injured Dirk Nowitzki, with once-again Trump fan and owner Mark Cuban swearing that it will take his team until March or April to willingly begin to start losing games in order to tank for a better draft pick.

With the team now starting and playing rookie Dorian Finney-Smith extended minutes and with the coach willing to just hand the opponents extra points in the form of a wide open free throw shot by the other team’s best free throw shooter, however, it might be time for the NBA to peel back the layers on what is obviously a clear case of the Dallas Mavericks throwing games.

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Sure, Rick Carlisle can defend the practice and tell the league that he just couldn’t wait to make his point in the locker room, necessitating a timeout that neither he nor his players had earned, but we know better.

The tank has commenced. A $2000 fine and extra snippet of teachable time is in no way worth the willful destruction of the trust we have in place for what, at one point, was an expected Dallas Mavericks basketball contest performed on the level as Naismith himself saw fit.

For shame.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!