Jason Kidd Seeks Mavs Bounce Back vs. Red-Hot Clippers: ‘As a Coach, I Need to Be Better’
Coming off a humbling 26-point defeat at the hands of the defending-champion Denver Nuggets, the Dallas Mavericks hope to shake it off quickly by jumping back into the win column with a big win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
To do that, though, Luka Doncic and company will have to find a way to cool off the red-hot Clippers, who have won eight games in a row and 10 of their last twelve. After getting off to a rocky start following the blockbuster trade for James Harden, the Clippers have figured things out. With Russell Westbrook going to the bench, all of LAC’s stars, including Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have been able to co-exist just fine.
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Although the Mavs have been shorthanded with Kyrie Irving, Josh Green, Dereck Lively II and Maxi Kleber all being sidelined to different injuries, Mavs head coach Jason Kidd still thinks he could be doing a better job coaching up the guy who are available on a night-to-night basis.
“As a coach I need to be better,” Kidd said following Dallas’ loss to Denver. “But the big thing is our defense. Our defense — if we are not scoring — needs to be better to give us a chance. We can’t just rely on Luka to have 40 to bail us out.”
And to expand on Kidd’s point, even a big offensive explosion from Doncic isn’t enough sometimes. The 24-year-old star finished with 38 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists while shooting 13-24 overall and 6-12 from deep, and yet, the Mavs were still no match for extremely deep Nuggets, even with Nikola Jokic having an off night on Monday.
To be fair to Kidd, he can’t make key role players like Tim Hardaway Jr., Grant Williams and Derrick Jones Jr. shoot better on the wide-open looks they get. However, he could be quicker in pulling the plug on certain players and limiting their minutes if it’s pretty clear that it’s not their night.
No matter which way you slice it, winning against good teams is going to be a tall task for the Mavs until their roster gets healthy again. Until that time comes, the margin for error will be low, and Dallas, from its coaching staff down to the 15th man on the bench, will need to be firing on all cylinders to have a chance to snap the Clippers’ win streak tonight.
