Rick Carlisle- Coach of the Year candidate

In the book Seven Seconds or Less, Jack McCallum discusses Shawn Marion's dislike for playing the 4 thinking he's better as a 3. After watching tonight's Laker game, Rick Carlisle should be nominated for coach of the year. First he has Marion understanding that he's not a 3 (he simply cannot shoot!) but he's an extremely hard guard at the four spot. He's too athletic for virtually all 4 men going to the basket. The Mavericks ran a step up screen and roll to death in the fourth quarter with Marion being the beneficiary of many easy looks from Kidd and Barea.

Carlisle also gets the nod for switching to a zone around the 9 minute mark of the fourth quarter. The Lakers made a push at the end of the third and start of the fourth putting a little full court press and made a dent in Dallas' lead. The switch to the zone took the Lakers out of their rhythm and Dallas was able to walk away with the easy win.

Kudos to Coach Carlisle sticking to the zone as well, on the first possession of zone Shannon Brown had a thunderous put back dunk that would have had most coaches get out of the zone in a hurry.