Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd isn’t a fan of being named the NBA Coach of the Year.
“That award is dangerous, because that award leads to getting fired the next year,” Kidd said. “I’ll past on that.”
In his first season as the Mavs’ coach, Kidd has led his team to a 44-28 record. That’s two wins better than last year’s team, which finished the truncated 72-game season with a 42-30 record.
In fact, the last time the Mavs won this many games was during the 2014-15 season when they finished with a 50-32 record. With 10 games remaining following Monday’s thrilling 110-108 triumph over the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Mavs could very well reach the 50-win plateau.
Meanwhile, when told that Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams and Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins were two of the leading candidates to claim this year’s Coach of the Year title, Kidd shied away from tooting his own horn and adding his name to that list.
“Those are two great candidates, and there’s probably another handful of candidates that should be mentioned,” he said. “There’s a lot of great coaches in this league, so we’ll see who gets it.
“(Winning the award) puts a lot of pressure on you the following year and it tends to not go well.”
DOUBLE-DIGIT LEADS: The Mavs lead the NBA with 15 wins when they’ve trailed by 10 or more points. But the sticky part comes when they lose a double-digit.
On Monday, the Mavs led the Timberwolves by 16 points in the third quarter. But late in the fourth quarter the Mavs found themselves down by one point before they recovered and rallied for a 110-107 victory.
“We’ve got to play 48 minutes,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We all would like to play ahead, but it’s hard to keep a lead in this league.
“The pressure is always on the team who has the lead going into the last six minutes of a game. You’ve seen a lot of the quality teams – the good teams – are winning those games. They’re all considered contenders for the championship. Hopefully that’s us.”
CATCH AND SHOOT THREES: In order for his defense to get back to where he wants it to be, coach Jason Kidd said knows they have to do better at running opponents off the three-point line.
“We’re just giving up too many catch and shoot threes,” Kidd said. “In this league everybody shoots the three well on catch and shoots.
“We’ve got to do a better job of making them put it on the floor and having the concept of (shooting) twos inside the three-point line. If we
continue to give up catch-and-shoot threes, we’ll give up 129 points like we did in Charlotte (this past Saturday).”
On Monday, the Timberwolves converted 13 of their 37 baskets from three-point range. And many of them were of the catch and shoot variety.
LOBBYING FOR FINNEY-SMITH: Coach Jason Kidd said he doesn’t mind lobbying for forward Dorian Finney-Smith to be on one of the NBA’s all-defensive teams when the awards are handed out after this season.
“I think Dorian should be on one of the all-defensive team,” Kidd said. “I know we joked about Luka (Doncic) feeling he should be on one of them too.
“But I think what (Doncic) does on a nightly basis – him and Reggie (Bullock) always taking on the best offensive player. (Finney-Smith) never complains and plays his role at a very high level and does it well. So to lobby for him, yes. Hopefully he makes one of those teams.”
IT’S A LONG SEASON: One thing coach Jason Kidd said he and his players can’t afford to do during this time of the year is look pass the remaining few games of the season and look ahead to the playoffs.
That’s because Kidd said this is the fun part of the season.
“Sometimes we can look ahead, sometimes we can’t wait for the season to be over, but we’re human,” Kidd said. “When you talk about a team playing at a very, very high level for 82 games, that’s hard mentally and physically. The big thing is we had a little slippage here the last two games.
“There’s teams chasing us and we’re chasing teams, and that’s the fun part of the year. So from mid-March to April 10th is the fun part before the playoffs starts. So you can’t think about the playoffs. You’ve got to think about the (10) games and you’ve got to just take it one game at a time.”
BRIEFLY: When asked how well is his NCAA men’s tournament bracket, coach Jason Kidd said: “Undefeated. Perfect. I had St. Peters winning. March is incredible. That’s why we play the game. It’s great to see some of the lower seeds win. But I don’t think anybody’s bracket is perfect right now.” Mavs guard Jalen Brunson led Villanova to NCAA titles in 2016 and ’18, and his alma mater will face Michigan on Thursday in San Antonio in the Sweet 16. The Mavs will leave Dallas on Thursday and fly to Minnesota, where they’ll play the Timberwolves on Friday. Asked if the team’s charter will arrive in Minnesota in time for the opening tipoff of the Villanova-Michigan game, Kidd said: “We’ll do whatever we can do so (Brunson) can get in front of the TV. It’s all about him, for sure.”. .The Mavs had six players score at least 15 points in Monday’s win over Minnesota. That’s the first time that’s happened since April 23, 1989, in a 113-89 win over Denver. That night nearly 33 years ago, they were led by Rolando Blackman (21) Roy Tarpley (20), Derek Harper (18), Sam Perkins (17), Adrian Dantley (15) and Brad Davis (15). . . Kidd said he doesn’t have anyone on his staff in his ear telling him on a daily basis where thew Mavs are in the standings. “No one is giving me the data or who has the hardest schedule or who has the weakest schedule,” Kidd said. “You’ve got to play 82 games. It’s about the journey and understanding what’s important. We always want to win every game, but there’s a lot of things that we’ve got to get better at.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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