"Whoa, ho, I'm no genius." (He's kind of a genius.) (Getty Images)

All the superstar prowess, the free agency hullabaloo, the Dwightmare and trade mania, and we forgot something so important.

Coaching still matters.

In the wake of the Los Angeles Lakers' disastrous opening night loss to the Nowitzki-less (and Chris Kaman-less, and Eddy-Curry'd) Dallas Mavericks, there's little reason to freak out for Los Angeles. Zach Harper breaks down what went wrong for the Lakers, and why the Lakers can keep calm and carry on.

But what will get lost the day after is that there was another team on the floor. The Mavericks won that game as much as the Lakers lost it. The Mavericks found themselves at disadvantages at point guard, shooting guard, power forward and, most especially, center. They had arguably a worse bench going in. There was every reason for chaos and disarray for the Mavs on the Lakers' floor.

Instead, the Mavericks controlled the game. They didn't need a huge scoring night from anyone, didn't need injury disaster or a bizarro shooting night (that free-throw shooting might seem like an outlier, but it's Dwight Howard in his first game back with an achy back; that could happen again). They didn't try to do too much. That was the real key.

That's the big thing with Rick Carlisle. He asks his players to do what they can do. Yes, Dirk Nowitzki can do amazing things, but Carlisle has never put Nowitzki in a situation to try to be something that he's not. And without Nowitzki, the Mavericks ran a pick-and-roll with Elton Brand or a shockingly proficient Brandan Wright. They spread the floor with shooters and gave Darren Collison, their best healthy player, the freedom to create for himself and others.

Carlisle won a title in 2010-11 by getting his players to buy into the team concept. That Mavericks team was blessed with veterans at nearly every position. There are younger veterans on this team, but in the first game, they bought in. There was zero sense of awe from the Mavericks toward the Lakers, nor should there have been expected to be any. They've all played against good teams before, and the patience and control they played under seemed to catch the Lakers off guard.

While the Lakers were out-thinking their own sets and trying to establish a rhythm, the Mavericks did their thing. Shawn Marion defended, they brought weakside help defensively, they ran with opportunities and they ran a metric ton of pick-and-rolls (53 according to Synergy Sports). Simple. Efficient. Effective.

Carlisle has long been regarded as good, and his 2010-11 run certainly had people considering him great. But he's still overlooked for the Rivers, Popoviches and Thibodeaus of the world. But Tuesday night's win, though it was just one win, was a showcase of what he brings to the table. A calm, collected sense of purpose, a self-knowledge to know when to not overthink the game and, most important, great preparation.

It is exceptionally rare that a Carlisle team will show up not ready to play, that they won't know where they're going or what they need to do. The Mavericks team on Tuesday night hadn't played a full game together, either. In fact, Marion and Wright were the only starters who had played together.

Yet there they were, ready to go.

It's one game, and Dallas could struggle phenomenally still with Nowitzki out. But it's proof that while we were all looking at the arms and legs and bodies on the floor, we forgot the head. That's Rick Carlisle, and he knows very well what the hell he's doing up there.