NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAVERICKS VS. WARRIORS

May 22, 2022

Jason Kidd

Dallas Mavericks

Game 3: Postgame

Warriors 109, Mavericks 100

Q. What happened there late in the second quarter when you lost that nine-point lead and also in the third quarter when they outscored you by nine?

JASON KIDD: Well, I think we won the second quarter. They're a team of runs. They went on a run, and again, we gave up 30 points in that third. Just understanding you can't give them second opportunities. When you give them second opportunities, Klay and Steph and Wiggins -- Wiggins is playing at a high level for them. They've been here before, so they understand what they have to do, and they did it tonight.

Q. You talked about Wiggins. He might be their fifth best player, sixth best player some nights and he's a former No. 1 pick. You don't have a player like that on your roster outside of Luka. Does that speak to maybe the talent disparity of both of the rosters right now?

JASON KIDD: We're not going to match guy for guy. We've got to throw our team at their team.

Yeah, Wiggins is a talented player. He's an All-Star. So when you look at what they're asking him to do, he's doing it at a high level. Again, second opportunities, 18 second-chance points against the Warriors, it just puts you in a bad situation, and when we're not shooting the ball straight, it really puts a lot of pressure on our defense.

To give up 109 to a very offensive-minded team, you should be in the game, you should have a chance to win. This wasn't, so-called, their best game, but they found a way to win.

Q. Jason, two straight games Luka scored 40-plus. Haven't been able to win obviously either one of those. How do you feel about kind of his individual brilliance versus balance, or is it just a case of, hey, guys are getting shots and not knocking them down?

JASON KIDD: I think there's a combination. We just didn't shoot the ball well. Reggie is 0-for-10, Dorian is 2-for-7 or 3-for-7. When you look at the three guys who scored, Spencer, LD and JB, that's just not enough against the Warriors. You need a lot more guys to participate offensively. But we're getting good looks, and they're just not dropping.

Again, I've said this, jump-shooting teams, we're going to live and die by the three, but we're also dying by not getting the rebound and giving them second-chance opportunities.

Q. Reggie had a great morning, got a great award but certainly had a struggling night, I guess also had an injury. Can you talk about the course of the day and how tough tonight's game was for him?

JASON KIDD: Yeah, well, we're not judging Reggie on this one game. Reggie has been incredible for us all season. He never complains, he comes to work in a great mood, true pro. He got a big-time award today for what he does off the floor.

Listen, all the great shooters have been there. You make some, you miss some. He's a pro. He'll be ready to go tomorrow and he'll be ready for Game 4. But the things that we've asked him to do on the defensive end on this journey, he's doing at a very high level, and unfortunately he just didn't make shots.

It's kind of cool that he didn't make shots but he was only minus 5 in the plus/minus. That's pretty cool that you don't score or make a shot but you compete on the other end, and that's who he is.

Q. Jason, we all know the numbers when you're down 3-0 in a series. What kind of message do you send or try to send to your team now?

JASON KIDD: Yeah, it's just one game. We'll get ready for Game 4, and that's all we can focus on. I think I said this in the last series. This is just the beginning of this journey. I know you guys had us winning the championship before the season started. And that's a joke if you didn't get it. But this is a lot bigger than just this one game or this one series. This is huge for our franchise because none of you guys had us here. You guys were all supposed to be on vacation. Yeah, I know.

So it's cool to go through this, and we're going against -- you can call them a dynasty. I saw this in San Antonio where you go against -- they have three great players who will be all Hall-of-Famers, and this is a great lesson learned from us. This isn't the end. This is just the beginning. I said this in the Phoenix series, if you guys recall. You guys got good memories. This is the beginning of the journey, and we'll be ready to go for Game 4.

Q. Speaking of going through things, you guys have bounced back, been a good bounce-back team all season, but I don't think you have to bounce back from losing a 19-point lead in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Do you think that there was any hangover at the start of this game? You fell behind, you did battle back, but I wonder if the early going you sensed any hangover.

JASON KIDD: No, I didn't think there was any hangover. We got great looks. The ball went in and out, no different than in Game 2. The ball just didn't fall for us, and that happens in the game of basketball or any sport. Sometimes the ball falls for you, sometimes it doesn't. We got great looks.

Again, it's a 10-point game, it's an 8-point game, and we just couldn't get over the hump. You've got to give the Warriors credit for that.

Q. Jason, you mentioned the whole experience part of it. Do you think that you or even your team can appreciate the experience that you're getting just in getting this far regardless of the result?

JASON KIDD: I would say yes and no. When you're in a battle, you're not thinking about the big picture. You're just thinking about the thing at hand and that's making a basket or get a stop. But as we reflect this summer, whenever that starts, we'll understand what we did and how we can get better, and that's the blessing of this whole thing is we truly believe we belong here, and we're going to keep fighting, but we're also going to get better from this experience.

Q. When you look at the missed threes, the offensive rebounds, do you sense fatigue that in any way could be adding up at this point with how many minutes you've played Luka starting injured, just the lack of off-days?

JASON KIDD: You're going to have to ask them that question. I don't have too much movement when I stand up or sit down. That's a player's question of are they tired.

Q. Following up on that, 47-33 rebounding, 18-4 second-chance points. I know you're playing small lineups. What are you seeing as far as what factors into rebounding being that lopsided?

JASON KIDD: Yeah, we just have to be physical and make contact to keep them from crashing. A lot of times they hit us too late, and so when you're playing small, we have to just -- we've got to hit first, we can't hit second.