The question gave coach Jason Kidd the chance to lift the curtain a little on what’s been going on with his basketball team for the last two months.
It’s been a physical battle, of course, with injuries upon injuries.
But what about the mental aspect of tuning out the noise created by the Luka Doncic trade and avoiding any woe-is-us thinking when the players were dropping fast?
“We’re lucky that the season isn’t over,” Kidd said. “We have an opportunity to continue and find a way to win on Wednesday. It’s going to be on the road, it’s a hostile environment. We all know what’s at stake. Win and move on. If you lose, the season’s over.
“Some would say the season was over a long time ago. We’ve never seen it that way. We’ve continued to keep fighting and we got to fight tomorrow if we want to keep the season going.”
That “season was over a long time ago” mentality probably was embraced by fans when Kyrie Irving went down with a season-ending knee injury, if not earlier when the trade was made.
But the Mavericks couldn’t afford to let that sentiment poison their system. Instead, they tried to get as healthy as possible and they find themselves in the play-in tournament, opening Wednesday night at 9 p.m. in Sacramento.
The Mavericks are facing long odds to reach the playoffs as the No. 8 seed. They have to not only win at Sacramento on Wednesday, they would need to win at either Golden State or Memphis on Friday, depending on who loses their game Tuesday night.
But they have no intentions of going down without a fight. In fact, turning Wednesday’s game into a physical, defensive-minded grind is their primary job.
“Their offense is a real problem,” said Max Christie. “They got a lot of good parts of their team that make a whole team. Really on both sides of the ball, but offense is where they really thrive.
“So for us, we got to hang our hat on the defensive end and offensively will take care of itself because we have so much talent. The challenge for us is going to be on the defensive end because they have so many weapons, so we got to lock in on that.”
As Daniel Gafford said: “Dealing with them at home, crazy energy, crazy atmosphere when it comes to that Sacramento crowd. It’s going to be a real gritty game. It’s going to be a dogfight, for sure.
“I feel throughout the whole team everybody wants to (make it physical).”
One thing that shouldn’t bother the Mavericks is their surroundings at Golden 1 Center, which will be loud and rowdy. But the Mavericks have been pretty good at blocking out noise all season.
“With the injuries, the trade, we have just focused in that locker room about what we can control and that’s energy and effort,” Kidd said. “I don’t want to say it’s easy, but that’s what we’ve focused on – energy and effort. And I think we’ve done that at a high, high level.
“I would say it’s been easy, because it’s basketball. It’s not political, it’s basketball. It’s about scoring, playing defense, helping one another and that’s what this group has done. It takes a staff and players to buy in and everyone did that.”
Expert advice: The Mavericks have benefited this season from having former head coach Frank Vogel serve as a consultant.
He’s been a frequent visitor and he’s been at the two practices this week. And he’s somebody Kidd has gone to battle with before. Vogel was head coach and Kidd his lead assistant in 2021 when the Lakers beat Golden State 103-100 in the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game.
“When you look at his basketball IQ, just different things to think about as the game is going on, different scenarios we might not think of as a staff, he’s been great at throwing those things out,” Kidd said. “Being a sounding board and being part of the staff as a consultant, his value, I trust and he’s here to help us win.
Playing time increase? With a few days between games and the urgency that comes with a win-or-go-home situation, the Mavericks are hopeful that they’ll be able to give Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II and Caleb Martin longer runs than the minute-restricted playing time they had in the final 10 days of the season.
“We hope,” Kidd said. “We’ll see what that looks like and see how everybody feels. But that’s a real question. And hopefully the answer is yes that some of those restrictions are heightened or taken off. But if they’re not, we’ve been able to handle that and we’ll have to handle it if they don’t change.”
Gafford has been able to gradually increase his time and he said he’s got “fingers crossed” that he’ll be able to go as long as needed on Wednesday.
X: @ESefko
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