The Dallas Mavericks lost 114-113 to the Phoenix Suns on Friday night at American Airlines Center and head coach Jason Kidd went off on his team postgame. Kidd ripped his players over yet another slow start and slammed the bench unit as well.
“For whatever reason, we’re getting off to a slow start, it’s gotta be addressed,” Kidd said. “We’ve talked about it, there’s gotta be action, there’s gotta be some energy. Somebody’s gotta come with some f***ing energy. We’re f***ing flat, so that’s where it starts.”
Kidd then briefly pointed to some positives, like scoring over 60 points in the second half. He thought they played with good pace and had some decent looks as well. The 51-year-old then proceeded to blast everyone on the team except Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and Klay Thompson.
“Again, the fatigue of running Luka and Kai 40-something minutes because our bench stinks right now,” Kidd stated. “As deep as we are, we got to get someone to f***ing participate off the bench. Somebody has to join the party to help Kai and Luka and that’s just not happening right now.
“It’s a team. It’s not just Luka and Kai and Klay,” Kidd added. “Others have to participate and that’s not happening right now. Played the whole f***ing team tonight. We couldn’t find anybody, so we had to leave those two to carry the load and that’s unfair for those two this early in the season.”
Jason Kidd goes off on Mavs after their loss to Phoenix tonight 😳
“Somebody’s gotta come with some f***ing energy. We’re f***ing flat… Our bench stinks right now… We got to get someone to f***ing participate off the bench.”
(via @noahweber00)pic.twitter.com/JateMq5rKi
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) November 9, 2024
That was brutal, but if getting off to better starts was a point of emphasis for the Mavericks, then I suppose you can’t blame Kidd for being this upset. The team dug themselves into a hole early on and he would have been losing his mind seeing that.
The Suns led 36-26 after the first quarter and led by as many as 14 points in the first half. The Mavericks just weren’t executing well on both ends of the floor and such slow starts have become a common sight at this point.
The Mavericks are averaging 26.3 points in the first quarters this season, which is tied for the sixth-worst in the NBA this season. They start slow time and time again and then wake up in the second half. They are averaging 59.4 points in the second halves this season, the fourth-best mark in the league.
The Mavericks, who have now dropped to 5-4 on the season, had 63 points in the second half against the Suns and Kidd wants to see that kind of energy throughout the game. I can’t say he is asking too much of his players there.
As for the bench unit, it certainly didn’t make a positive impact on Friday. The Mavs’ bench recorded just nine points while the Suns’ bench put up 28. Both of these teams don’t get a lot of production from their second unit, but this was a particularly horrendous showing from Dallas’ bench.
They are now averaging 25.1 points per game as a unit this season, the fifth-worst in the league. As Kidd pointed out, the Mavericks need production from players other than Doncic, Irving, and Thomspon if they are to be successful.
Against the Suns, Doncic had 30 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and one steal while Irving had 29 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and three steals. They both played over 40 minutes and it still wasn’t enough to come away with the win.
It will be interesting to see if this public bashing from Kidd gets a reaction out of his players when they take on the Denver Nuggets next at Ball Arena on Sunday at 8 PM ET.
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