To say that Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd was a bit angry with his team after Friday’s 114-113 loss to the Phoenix Suns is one of the
understatements of the year.
Kidd was very upset with his team’s slow start, extremely upset that his bench was a no-show in terms of making a meaningful contribution, and highly upset that he keeps having to make the same speech to his team over and over again, and it just doesn’t seem to be getting through.
In other words, Kidd is at his wit’s end.
“For whatever reason, we’re getting off to a slow start,” Kidd said, as the Mavs dropped to 5-4 on the season. “It’s got to be addressed. We talked about it.
“There’s got to be action. There’s got to be energy. Somebody’s got to come with some (expletive) energy. We’re (expletive) flat.
“We’ve got to be tough no matter how many injuries we have or how small we are. The league is small. And right now we’re not doing that.”
Luka Dončić played 42 minutes and finished with 30 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Mavs. Kyrie Irving added 29 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals in 41 minutes.
But the Suns outscored the Mavs’ bench by a sizeable 28-9 margin, and that had Kidd fuming.
“The fatigue of running Luka and Kai 40-something minutes (is tough), because our bench stinks right now,” Kidd said. “As deep as we are, we’ve got to get someone who can (expletive) 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 (Thompson). Others have to participate, and that’s not happening right now. I played the whole (expletive) team tonight, and 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.”
The Mavs wrapped up this five-game home stand with a 2-3 record heading into a three-game trip starting Sunday in Denver.
Suns center Jusuf Nurkic snapped a 113-113 tie when he nailed the second of two free throw attempts with 0.8 seconds remaining in the game. With the score tie at 113-all, Baylor-ex Royce O’Neale drove the lane and missed a floater, and Nurkic grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled by Daniel Gafford, who fouled out on the play.
The referees went to the replay monitor to ensure that the foul occurred before time expired, which it did.
“The referee called a foul,” Kidd said. “That’s what we saw.”
Following a Dallas timeout, a desperation three-pointer by Dončić missed its mark.
“I always can get a better shot,” Dončić aid. “I think that’s a makeable shot.”
Kidd said: “Luka got a good shot. We don’t play the what-if. That’s your job. We got the ball to the best player. He got a good look.
“You run him anywhere else, he’s going to run into traffic. So, we executed. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
Before that, the game went back and forth during the final five-plus minutes. Thompson’s three-pointer put the Mavs up, 100-98, but Suns guard Bradley Beal tied it with a jump shot.
Irving scored over Kevin Durant to put the Mavs ahead, 102-100, only to see Durant nail a three-pointer for a103-102 lead for the Suns. Irving countered with a two-pointer and a three-pointer for a 107-103 Dallas lead with 3:35 left.
However, Durant buried another three-pointer, then a pair of free throws from Gafford nudged the Mavs out front, 109-106, with 2:57 to go. O’Neale knotted the game at 109 apiece with a triple, and a dunk by Gafford via a bounce pass from Thompson gave the Mavs a 111-109 lead with 2:17 remaining.
Nurkic, though, got loose inside and tied the game at 111-111 with 58.3 seconds left. And following a missed three-pointer by Durant, Nurkic snatched the offensive rebound and dunked it to put the Suns ahead, 113-111, with 31.4 seconds to go.
But the Mavs knotted the score at 113 apiece when Gafford connected on a lob dunk pass from Dončić at the 23.5 second mark. Then came the dramatic ending which resulted in the Mavs losing to the Suns for the second time this season.
Kidd was miffed th
at the Suns – thanks to Nurkic – even got a second look at the basket in the closing seconds.
“That’s just been something all season for us,” Kidd said. “We can’t rebound the ball. At a crucial time, also. We’re just coming up short right now.
“We just got to stay the course. We’re small, so we got to be gritty. We got to be physical. But right now the ball is bouncing the other way.”
The Mavs were without three of their best rebounders as injuries shelved Dereck Lively II (right shoulder sprain), P. J. Washington (right knee sprain) and Maxi Kleber (right hamstring strain). But Kidd noted that is not an excuse for the Mavs falling behind, 36-26, after the first quarter when they allowed the Suns to make eight three-pointers in 13 attempts.
“We just have to battle through,” Irving said. “Our pace can still be better in that first quarter, but it wasn’t anything in comparison to other first quarters.
“They made shots. They came in and ready to play, and we just had to battle back.”
Phoenix led by as many as 14 points, and by 63-50 at halftime before a 21-8 surge from the Mavs netted them a 73-71 lead midway through the third quarter.
“I think our starts have been very bad, so we just got to start better every game,” Dončić said. “I think we fought in the second half, but we got to bring the energy in the first half, and it starts with me.”
Besides Dončić and Irving, the Mavs got 18 points and five rebounds from Naji Marshall, 15 points and seven boards from Gafford, and 12 points from Thompson. Durant (26 points), O’Neale (18 points), Tyus Jones (17 points), Beal (15 points), Nurkic (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Devin Booker (13 points, 12 assists) all were key contributors for the Suns, who won for the seventh straight time and improved to 8-1.
“We talked about this slow start and the energy,” Kidd said. “We’re trying to learn who we are, and it’s early in the season. Maybe we’re a sleepy team that just kind of wakes.
“Again, the energy is something that we can hold them accountable for. The one thing you can control is your effort and energy, and right now our energy is low and we got to be better with that. So, it’s something that we got to talk about as a group, and the beauty of this is we get a chance to fix it on Sunday.”
X: @DwainPrice
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