Rick Carlisle likens Mavs’ bad start to ‘Donald Trump debate performance’

Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle peppered his postgame analysis of the team’s “abominable” start to its preseason game against the Houston Rockets with some political commentary thanks to a barb directed at Donald Trump.

The Mavericks quickly fell behind the Rockets by an 18-2 margin early on in Wednesday’s exhibition match-up, a performance Carlisle, presumably a member of Team Hillary, didn’t appreciate. Afterward, here’s what the Mavs head coach had to say about Trump, who just so happened to be taking part in the final presidential debate along with Hillary Clinton the very same night.

Rick Carlisle: "The beginning of the game was abominable. It was a Donald Trump debate performance."

— Tim Cato (@tim_cato) October 20, 2016

In the end, the Mavericks lost the preseason game by a score of 106-91. While a meaningless outcome, Carlisle’s postgame quip disparaging the Republican presidential nominee likely ingratiated himself further to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a staunch Hillary Clinton supporter.

So he’s got that going for him, which is nice.